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PROPAGANDA 



IN ITS 



ILITARY AND LEGAL ASPECTS 



ClBRARY on CONGRESS 
F.A.C- File Nn ^^6 

SEP. 14 i960 



Military Intelligence Branch 

Executive Division 

General Staff 

U. S. A. 



U'U: 



f/ ' -v. 



, Sf^re- - (JJ'^A^^P'^ 



PROPAGANDA 



IN ITS 



MILITARY AND LEGAL ASPECTS 



IZrBFlARY Ol CONGRESS 

F.A.C. File l\}o. ^^^ 



SEP 14 1960 



Military Intelligence Branch 

Executive Division 

General Staff 

U. S. A. 



DEC 21 lais 



pGCUMENis mmm 



mm 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



INTRODUCTION 1 

Civil Propaganda 1 

Military Propaganda 2 

CHAPTER I, PROPAGANDA AGAINST THE ALLIES 5 

Defensive Propaganda 5 

Conquest, by Propaganda, the Russian Disaster 6 

Panic by Propaganda, the Italian Retreat 7 

The Technique of French Propaganda 15 

Co-operation Inside the Lines: "Defeatist" Propaganda 18 

Bolo Pasha and the Bonnet Rouge 19 

CHAPTER II, PROPAGANDA AMONG NEUTRAL NATIONS 25 

The Central Bureau in Spain 26 

Mexico 35 

Spanish-America 40 

"Disruption Offensive" Against Japan 43 

China and India 44 

Turkey 46 

Scandinavia and Holland 49 

Switzerland 52 

Ireland 56 

Australia 59 

CHAPTER III, VARIOUS FORMS OF PROPAGANDA 62 

The Continental Times 62 

Peace Offensives 63 

German Propaganda in Germany 66 

The News Agencies 69 

Breaking the News of the American Expeditionary Forces 70 

Propaganda by Advertising Monopolies 71 

CHAPTER IV, GERMAN PROPAGANDA IN AMERICA 73 

The Delbriick Law 73 

The German Spy System 74 

The Propaganda Machine ^ 76 

The German-American Alliance 79 

The German Lutheran Church 84 

The Friends of German Democracy 86 

Influence of Propaganda in the United States 87 

Propaganda by Newspapers 88 

Propaganda by Books ' 94 

Propaganda by Film and Drama 96 

CHAPTER V, CO-OPERATING AGENCIES 101 

Religious Propaganda 101 

Conscientious Objectors and "Divinity Students" 103 

"The Finished Mystery" 104 

Philanthropic Slackers 109 

Propaganda Among the Labor Organizations 113 

Anarchist Propaganda 115 



TABLE OF CONTENTS— Contmued 

■ CHAPTER VI, PROPAGANDA BY DISSENSION 118 

Propaganda Among Friendly Aliens 119 

Propaganda Among the Negroes 120 

Propaganda by Rumor 123 

Propaganda by Cartoon and Essay 124 

Various Lies: The Sweater Story ' 128 

Tracing a Rumor 130 

Propaganda by Attacks on Morals 133 

The Attack on Red Cross Nurses 133 

Propaganda Concerning Camp Conditions 136 

"The One Hundred and One Lies" 136 

The Y. M. C. A 13S 

Propaganda for an Imperfect Peace 138 

CHAPTER VII, THE ESPIONAGE ACT 141 

CHAPTER VIII 150 

Legal Recognition of Propaganda as a Crime 150 

The Overi-aan Bill and the France Amendment 150 

Resume 178 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Cartoon by Orr 182 

A Page from the Finished Mystery 183 

A Page from the Vampire of the Continent L 184 

Cover of an Anti-American Spanish Book 185 

Post Cards Used in Spanish Propaganda 186 

"The Defenders of the Weak" 187 

Fac-Similes. 

An American Peace Sermon Used as German Propaganda A 

Reverse Page . B 

Cheques Used in the Purchase of the New York Mail C 

A Double Page from "Bull" D 

A Russellite Paper E 

The Continental Times (published in English in Germany) F 

The Gazette des Ardennes (published in French in Germany) G 

The Gazette des Ardennes (Illustrated Edition) H 

Boletin de la Guerra (pro German Mexican Paper) I 

"The World Enchained" (pro German Spanish Poster) J 

"Which Are the Barbarians?" (pro German Spanish Poster) K 

Consequences of Refusing Peace (pro German Spanish Poster) L 

Pro Ally Spanish Propaganda M 

The Kaiser as an Angel of Peace N 

"The Last Hope" 

"The Come Down of the Yankee" P 



INTRODUCTION. 

CIVIL PEOPAGAIsTDA. 

The person who cries "'Fire !" in a crowded auditorium, or 
who starts a false alarm resulting in a panic is spreading a form 
of propaganda. The results of his act may be such as to lay him 
liable to a trial for murder. 

The person who by gossip, innuendo or other means destroys 
the credit of a bank and starts a run upon it, is a propagandist 
and amenable to punishment. 

The person who by insinuation or backbiting wrecks the good 
name of a man or a woman is wielding the same powerful and 
dangerous weapon. 

The collector of bad debts who sends his duns on postal cards 
or on envelopes of conspicuous nature is carrying out a form of 
offensive and illegal propaganda. Equally the person who, by 
false representations, distortions, exaggerations, or suppressions of 
tbe truth, booms a worthless stock with intent to defraud, is a 
propagandist against public and private welfare and comes within 
reach of the law. 

All of these are engaged in activities to which the word ''propa- 
ganda" has not been applied ; yet they illustrate it perfectly. There 
has been no question of legal authority for the punishment of these 
acts. Propaganda has therefore a legal status, though under other 
names. 

If propaganda against an individual's reputation, the safety 
of a crowd of people in a theatre, the prosperity of a local bank, is 
dangerous to the public welfare, by so much the more is it danger- 
ous when it attacks the honor of a nation, the lives of its soldiers, 
the fate of its armies and the liberty of the whole people. While 
few persons would underestimate the viciousness of hostile propa- 
ganda, its direct military importance is apt to be overlooked. 

In the recent trial of a Crerman-American newspaper editor 
under the provisions of the Espionage Act, the judge ruled that 
while the articles cited were offensive in their tone, they did not 
constitute a violation under the act because they did not give in- 
formation of military value to the enemy — as if the only way to 
]ielp the enemy were to inform him! It needs only to be stated 
to be accepted that misinformation cimningly distributed at home 

1 



2 Propaganda 

may be as iisefnl to the enemy as information cleverly conveyed to 
him. 

The Department of Justice, which has become so powerful 
an adjunct of the military establishment in this war, has been 
embarrassed in some of its prosecutions by a lack of precedents 
among judicial decisions to settle the exact legal status of the hostile 
propagandists as such. There seemed to be nowhere among the 
charges of the courts any reference to the power of propaganda 
and its menace. In the many cases in which it has been involved, 
the charges of the judges have been rather technical than expository 
of the plain truth that hostile propaganda is an act and a method 
of war. 

A military opinion has therefore been requested, and it is given 
herewith in the hope of placing the matter clearly before all who 
may be interested, especially the attorneys who must prosecute the 
cases; and of showing by various concrete examples how direct and 
vital an influence propaganda has upon military activity. 

MI LITAR Y PROPAGANDA. 

The military danger of propaganda is ])y no means limited to 
that of the traitor who spreads dissension and discouragement 
through the ranks, or the coward who with another form of propa- 
ganda starts a panic by throwing down his rifle and screaming 
''We're lost !" as he runs. Propaganda as a means of disabling armies 
Iras grown with the size of armies and the complexity of modern 
warfare. 

As the success of armies depends more and more on the scale 
on which their preparation, equipment and reinforcement are 
conducted at home, so the enemy in seeking to destroy the base 
of the army, attacks the army at that distant point by the grand 
strategy of propaganda. 

The giving of military information to the enemy has always 
been recognized as a capital offense, and justly, but in the recent 
developments of civilization and the military arts, the propagan- 
dist may cause far greater damage to the army thaii any spy or 
group of spies. The spy endangers the success of the one body 
of troops at the firing line, by conveying information as to the 
plans, numbers, morale or disposition of the troops. But the propa- 
gandist attacks the whole army at its base ; threatens to cut it 
off from its ha^e, to stop the flow of reinforcements, supplies, am- 



Introduction 3 

munition, equipment, food, comforts, and above all, to weaken the 
moral support that sustains the troops in the hardships and cruelties 
of war far from home. 

"Armies fight as the people think," was the wise epigram of 
the British General Applin. It might be extended to say that 
armies fight as armies think, for, as George William Curtis said, 
"Thoughts are bullets." If our troops in France were convinced 
by certain active propagandists that they are fighting a capitalist's 
war, and enduring privations and pouring out their blood to pro- 
tect the investments of bankers, they would not fight well, and 
probably would not fight at all. 

To inculcate this belief among our soldiers is therefore an 
experiment which the enemies of our soldiers at home or abroad 
may well make. It is worthy of the expenditure of great funds 
and toil, for its success would wither the military arm of our nation 
without costing one German life or one German cartridge. Even 
its partial success has the value of a destructive bombardment. 
Therefore, we see this effort made, and numberless similar efforts. 
To convince the French armies and people that American troops 
are brutal, insolent, contemptuous and destructive, or to convince 
the Italian armies that American, French and British troops are 
indifferent to their fate, can only tend to cause dissension, discour- 
agement and disruption. Therefore we see this effort made with 
every ingenious device. 

The Germans in their spring drive of 1918 spent hundreds of 
thousands of lives and incalculable treasure in a vain effort to split 
the British army from the French. The success of the propa- 
ganda of disruption would have achieved the same end without 
the shedding of any blood or the expenditure of large moneys. 
Working in conjunction with actual attack, propaganda will ruin 
the morale, therefore the fighting power, of many soldiers who do 
not succumb to the shells. 

Of equal military importance is the propaganda that disheartens 
the people at home. Panic works both ways from tlie middle. 
Everything that weakens the determination of the people or its 
confidence in its army, weakens the determination of the army and 
its confidence in its people. Everything that tends to slow up the 
military activity or the civilian activity, has an instant influence 
upon the success of the war. 

Propaganda is, in short, a fomi of invisible, almost inaudible 
gas attack, either directly upon the trenches or far back of the 



4 Propaganda 

line. The Germans, having shown an extraordinary taste for novel- 
ties in insidious warfare, have found propaganda a peculiarly 
congenial weapon, and have developed it to unheard of propor- 
tions just as they had developed the secret police to an extent 
unparalleled in either peace or war, at home and abroad. 



CHAPTER 1. 
PROPAGANDA AGAINST THE ALLIES. 

If propaganda had no direct military value, the most militaristic 
of nations would not give it the supreme importance it holds in 
the German campaign. 

LTniversal service has long been a Prussian institution. It 
implies the assignment of each man to the military task he is best 
fitted for. Certain Germans with no love for America having been 
prevented by the Allied control of the seas from returning to Ger- 
many to fight, have still fought for the Kaiser in the countries where 
they have been marooned. But great numbers of Germans in 
Germany have been mobilized in the propaganda divisions, spe- 
cializing according to their several proficiencies. 

DEFENSIVE PROPAGANDA 

The first task of the propagandists was justifying the German 
attack on civilization. Famous historians issued treatises . pro- 
testing an innocence which the high state of preparedness visibly 
belied. Diplomatists put forth documents throwing the blame for 
the war on England, France and Russia, and particularly on Earl 
Grey. Subsequent revelations of German diplomats merely con- 
firmed by confession the guilt which had been generally recognized. 
A group of eminent professors and scientists published a statement 
glorifying the military procedure in terms far from academic. 
Fanatic clergymen called loudly on their God for His blessing on 
the holy crusade of His anointed Kaiser. 

When the atrocities in Belgium shocked mankind, the propa- 
gandists retorted by denying that any atrocities had occurred except 
such as the "Belgian beasts" wreaked on the German wounded. 
A volume was printed proclaiming the tenderness of the conquerors, 
and the wolfishness of the Belgian victims, but the author had 
the misfortune to be condemned later in a German court as a 
criminal, a liar, a drug-fiend and a drunkard. 

Campaigns to persuade the neutral nations, particularly the 
United States, that Germany was clean of heart and merciful, 
were carried out on a magnificent scale, and would have succeeded 
better if they had not been incessantly thwarted by the incontrol- 
lable rapacity and cruelty of the imperial armies and by the 

■ 5 



6 Propaganda 

reckless excesses of enthusiasts in arson and bomb-distribution. 
Before taking up the details of the propaganda war on the 
United States, allusion may be made to a few of the most striking 
methods in use abroad. 

CONQUEST BY PROPAGANDA : THE RUSSIAN DISASTER. 

The Prussian soul first startled the world by its swift conquest 
of Austria, but the glory of her generals was materially dimmed 
afterwards by the disclosure of the fact that the great spy chief, 
Stieber, had, as he called it, "sowed spies" throughout Bohemia 
in such numbers that the army found the way prepared. 

The next amazing victory was the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. 
But here again Stieber claimed to. have paved the way for Bis- 
marck's success. by what he called his secret "entrenchment" of 36,000 
spies long before the declaration of war. 

The next great Prussian name is Von Hindenburg. Years after 
his stupendous victories of Tannenburg and the Masurian Lake?, 
the truth came out that German spies had conquered the Russian 
court and corrupted the General at the head of the ammunition 
supply so that the glorious victory was rather a slaughter of powder- 
less hordes than a genuine battle. Later the Grand Duke Michael 
and Brusiloff and Korniloff saw their superb victories end in dis- 
aster from the failure of supplies. 

Arnold Bennet has written : "Russian failure is not the failure 
of democracy. German victories in Russia were not won in the 
field, they were won in Petrograd, in offices and boudoirs." 

Never in the world's history has so great a nation as Russia 
so completely collapsed. This epochal cataclysm was the supreme 
triumph of propaganda. The expense of this propaganda has been 
estimated at $500,000,000. Compared to the expense of an equal 
conquest by arms and compared to the damage inflicted on the 
Allied cause by the defection of the Russian armies and the release 
of millions of German troops for the western drive, propaganda 
has here established itself as not only the most efficient but also the 
cheapest military weapon ever devised. 

The Kaiser's propagandists must have taken a peculiar delight 
in using men as their dupes who sought for freedom from a despot. 
When the Czar was dethroned and a republic established, the propa- 
gandists turned to the still more radical elements and encouraged 
the Bolsheviki to attack all remaining authority. Russia was filled 
with German agents in disguise and with purchased Russians who 



Against the Allies 7 

helped to spread the gospels' of disorder. The German soldiers 
left their trenches to fraternize with the Eussians. Soldiers whose 
Kaiser had held it up to them as a sacred duty to obey his every 
behest, even to the shooting of their own parents without hesita- 
tion, were seen encouraging the Eussian soldiers to believe that 
it was a soldier's sacred duty not only to refuse to obey his officers 
or to salute them, but to shoot them if they grew too dictatorial. 
Imperial Germany's conquest of democratic Eussia by a propaganda 
of individualism gone mad, is one of the ironies of history. 

Just as honest and as grotesque a campaign was made in the 
United States, but with only a success of delay. For there have 
been abundant and convincing proofs of the lavish expenditure 
of German money in the United States to discourage the movement 
for preparedness and to thwart in Congress and among the people 
the growing realization of the need of an army and a navy. 

The propagandists failed in this respect in the United States 
because they could not conceal the deeds of the U-boat and 
SchrecMichJceit partisans, but they have not ceased to do their 
utmost to delay and thwart preparation and efficiency, propagat- 
ing in this and other countries the doctrines of non-resistance, 
pacifism and prostration. They encourage non-resistance to Ger- 
many, but resistance to the American laM^ even to martyrdom. 

Some of the loudest pacifists have proved to be German agents, 
and it is certainly one of the most exquisite impudences of the 
Prussian strateg}^ that some of the most active open allies of 
Germany and the most persistent opponents of all efforts to prevent 
her world conquest are zealots who uphold peace at any price, 
demand free speech while freedom itself is threatened, and fear- 
lessly defend certain clauses of the Constitution against those who 
are trying to defend the very existence of the Constitution and the 
nation it constitutes. 

PANIC BY PROPAGANDA : THE ITALIAN RETREAT. 

Germany's second success with a major nation was the Italian 
retreat. This was another conquest by propaganda. The Italian 
army, flushed with great victories and about to move forward to 
greater, was suddenly thrown into a panic like a theatre fire, and 
driven in I'out from mountain strongholds till it was brought to 
a stand far back on its own territory. 

This Austro-German success was prepared by various forms of 
propaganda. The large anarchist element in Italy was encouraged 



8 Propiujunda 

and funded. Eeligious schisms were fostered. Forged newspapers 
in the Italian language, but .printed in Germany and made up 
to imitate Italian papers, were filled with articles preparing for 
defeat and making accusations of treachery. 

Among the most contemptible devices ever known for distracting 
an enemy's attention was the wholesale forgery of Roman and 
Milanese newspapers, absolute facsimiles of familiar journals but 
containing sensational articles telling not only that Austria was 
in revolt and that Emperor Charles had been killed, but also 
describing alleged bread-riots throughout Italy and stating that 
the Government, unable to quell them with its own forces, sent 
British and French reinforcing troops and even Zulus, into the 
cities and that these foreigners shot down Italian women, children 
and priests without mercy. It was intimated that the Italian 
troops were to be recalled from the front lines to defend the 
civilian populace against the atrocities of the British and French. 

Postal cards and letters in vast numbers were sent to individual 
soldiers stating that their wives were in illicit relation with officers 
and soldiers of the Allies. 

These papers, as well as circulars and postal cards of similar 
import, were conveyed into the lines of the Italians in multitudes 
and they were naturally believed to be genuine. It is small wonder 
that the impressionable soldiery should be infuriated against their 
Government and its Allies and should be more impelled to seek 
vengeance at home than across the border. 

In preparation for and in cooperation with this newspaper bom- 
bardment, the Austrians tried to assume the role of friends of Italy 
and lovers of peace. As in the Eussian case, troops in the trenches 
were encouraged to fraternize across No Man's Land, and the 
Italians were assured of Austrian sj'mpathy. Tlieir vigilance re- 
laxed. On the night before the attack, new regiments were quietly 
marched into the Austrian trenches. They made an unforeseen 
assault upon the sector where peace had reigned, and pierced the 
line at a critical point, starting a panic which extended to other 
points where soldiers whose morale was undermined swept awav 
those who would have resisted. The line gave way at numerous 
points and the whole structure of resistance crumbled. Germans, 
Austrians and Bulgarians in Italian officers' uniforms mingled with 
the Italians and had telephone lines cut, bridges and railroads 
wrecked and issued false orders to troops, causing utter confusion, 
which the Austrian armies turned to panic as they dashed forward. 



Against the Allies 9' 

The cost of this in lives and territory was not limited to the 
Italian army. It deranged the plans of the Allies, compelled the 
diversion of large forces, and thousands of guns to replace the 
heavy losses in artillery. It revived Austrian spirit and shook the 
confidence of all the Allies. Furthermore, it made the Italians 
themselves receptive to continued propaganda of the so-called "de- 
featist" brand. 

The success of this program was so overwhelming that it has 
naturally been tried again. Eepeated attempts to arouse the resent- 
ment of the Italians against their allies have been made by the imi- 
tation newspapers. 

As late as May 9th, an officer in the Italian army is quoted as 
saying: 

"The Central Empires are without doubt trying to launch one 
of their greatest peace propagandas. Germany's aim is to thor- 
oughly demoralize the armies and populations of the allied coun- 
tries and then to attack with overwhelming forces the weakest 
point on the allied front. 

"The Austrians have begun again their distribution in the 
trenches of false Italian newspapers with faked alarming news, 
having the object of discouraging the soldiers, but they succeed 
only in causing irritation and anger against the enemy. 

"One of the chief arguments of this Austro-German propa- 
ganda is an attempt to convince Italians that America is only 
bluffing, pointing out the delay with which her promised assist- 
ance is reaching the theatre of war. This palpable lie also makes 
no impression, being scorned by our soldiers, owing to the many 
evidences to the contrary." 

A very recent and singularly petty instance of trickery is thus 
described in the Washington Star of May 31 : 

"A new and brazen form of German propaganda, designed to 
destroy the confidence of the allies in the United States, is dis- 
closed in dispatches received here today. 

"It consisted of the publication in a German organ of the 
kaiser, the Deutsche Tages Zeitung. of an article to the effect that 
the recent message of President Wilson to Italy had not been 
to Italy at all, but to France, but that the Italian Government 
had substituted 'Italy' and 'Italian' wherever the words 
'France' or 'French' had occurred. 

"Thousands of copies of this paper then were circulated in 
France and in Italy, and in the latter country special effort was 
made to drop copies among troops all along the Italian front, 
and also in cities near enough to be reached by the enemy's 
aeroplanes. 

"The dispatch quotes the falsified statement of the Deutsche 
Tages Zeitung, contained in the issue of May 24, as follows: 

" 'According to news received from the French and Italian 
frontiers it appears that there was great unrest in those two 
(2) 



10 Propaganda 

countries and that the Governments, in order to calm the popula- 
tions, offered the people Mr. Wilson's message as a soothing 
remedy which was given wide publicity in Italy after introduc- 
ing arbitrarily sentences, changes and substitutions. 

" 'Instead of "the people of the United States are glad to find 
themselves associated in the same cause with the Italian people" 
the original text says: "The people of the United States are 
glad to find themselves associated in -^ the same cause with the 
French people." 

" 'Also instead of "the people of the United States have looked 
with profound interest and sympathy upon the efforts and sacri- 
fices of Italy" the original text says: "The people of the United 
States have looked with profound interest and sympathy upon 
the efforts and sacrifices of France." ' 

"Dispatches received here from Italy say that this Berlin 
emanation was received with ridicule by Ijoth the Italian soldiers 
and civilians, who realized that it was unthinkable that their 
Government would tamper with an official statement of the head 
of an allied nation. 

"But, it was pointed out, the effect of such propaganda among 
troops about to strike a decisive blow, who had not confidence 
in their Government or who were discouraged, could easily be 
seen." 

On one occasion, according to a Swiss informant of Carl W. 
Ackerman {Saturday Evening Post, May 25, 1918) the Grermans 
shipped a million copies of an Italian newspaper printed in Berlin 
through Switzerland into Italy on a coal train. Several hundred 
revolvers and boxes of ammunition and bombs were sent in suit- 
cases to Italian anarchists. 

Preceding the Austrian drive against Italy in June, 1918, there 
was a propaganda attack. The Idea Nazionale of Eome (quoted 
in the Literary Digest June 22, 1918) speaks of it as follows: 

"The moral offensive which precedes and is doubtless intended 
to serve as a smoke-veil and poisoned-gas attack combined, in 
preparation for a military offensive, has reached its climax. 
Throughout all Italy there is a renewal of the criminal propa- 
ganda which preceded, accompanied, and followed Caporetto. 
We have the same manifestation, the same arguments, and the 
same poisoning of the public mind. Leaflets introduced into 
houses and stores at Milan, proclamations disseminated at 
Florence, rumors spread in Naples, false news, false documents, 
false assertions, all tending systematically toward the following 
three aims: 1. To infuse terror by talk of fantastic enemy 
air raids against the chief cities of Italy; 2. To show that the 
destruction of our army is imminent and inevitable in view of 
the great new offensives represented as of gigantic proportions; 
3. To suggest peace as the only means of salvation, inventing 
honorable enemy proposals opening the way for genuine nego- 
tiations. 

"To such an extent, says the Rome Tril)una, have rumors been 
flying around, that 'the United States Embassy found it neces- 
sary to contradict a rumor that President Wilson had expressed 
views so contrary to the desires and hopes of Italy, that their 



Against the Allies 11 

publication in Italy had been forbidden by the censor.' While 
all this German propaganda is going on in Italy, the Italians 
take this opportunity of warning the English-speaking press of 
a subtle piece of propaganda which, the Italians say, has laid 
hold of the journalistic mind both in America and England. The 
Milan Secolo writes: 

" 'One of the Anglo-Saxon superstitions is that Austria is 
something substantially different from Germany and that her 
standards, or political, civil, and moral levels are more akin to 
those of Western democracy than to those of German autocracy. 

" 'The other illusion is that for a long time Austria has been 
trying to free herself from subjection to Berlin and contem- 
plates placing herself in the good graces ot the Entente by 
means of a separate peace. 

" 'No one knows Austria better than Italy and the Italians. 
No one has a better right to speak on this question. No one has 
so much documentary and historic evidence on hand. We must 
unmask Austria.' 

"This the Secolo proceeds to do with great vigor and belabors 
two English journals soundly for being so gullible: 

" 'Who has espoused the cause of Austria with the greatest 
enthusiasm? The Puritan and Non-conformist Radicalism of pa- 
pers like the London Daily News and the Nation, which in their 
neopacifistic fervor and their profound ignorance, see, in the 
elimination of Austria from 'the war, a way of getting swiftly 
into touch with Germany. 

" 'It is unnecessary to say that Austria from afar laughs at 
so much simpleness, but neglects nothing to encourage her old 
and tried friends, the Ultramontanes, and to dupe her new 
friends, the Puritans. It is in this light that those speeches of 
Count Czernin inviting President Wilson to "conversations" 
ought to be read, while ex-Ambassador Mensdorff meets General 
Smuts at Zurich and tries to temporize with a little light con- 
versation without realizing that the Boer General is not a fish 
to be caught in such a net. 

" 'It is to be hoped that after this vain attempt the idea of 
paying court to Austria in order to separate her from Germany 
will be abandoned by all the Entente Governments, and that they 
will all be convinced that the one policy possible is war to the 
uttermost with equal intensity against both Central Empires — 
war until that victory is reached which will make possible the 
realization of the promises given to the subject nationalities 
of complete independence. 

" 'If the Entente went back on this, its moral undertaking so 
loudly proclaimed at the beginning of the war, in order to con- 
clude a premature peace which, even if it satisfied Italian aims 
wholly or in part, still left the Czechs, Jugo-Slavs, Roumanians, 
and Poles oppressed and divided, it would be little less than a 
betrayal of the principles which the war has sanctified.' " 

This is peculiarly a war by propaganda. No more important 
munitions are turned out than the various devices of propaganda. 
The nation that neglects both to provide itself against hostile propa- 
ganda and to fight back with counter propaganda is doomed. 

As picturesque as a battle between air squadrons has been the 
propaganda duel over Italy. The first offensive has been descril3ed 



12 Propaganda 

above. Italy was caught unawares by the propagandists as by the 
soldiers. The first offensive was a terrific success. 

The second offensive was a terrific failure. Why? Without 
robbing the heroes in the trenches of one laurel leaf, an additional 
laurel crown might well be voted to the counter propagandists. 
Americans had a share in this. This story of Austria's attack and 
disaster is well told by Walter Littlefield in the New York Times 
for July 14, 1918 : 

"An elaborate propaganda of treason was launched in Italy- 
just before the Austrians began their offensive of July 15; it 
lacked, however, that dominating, diabolic co-ordination and 
artistic finish which characterized the one conceived, developed 
and executed by that arch-inventor of propaganda, Ludendorff, 
which brought about the Caporetto catastrophe— transitory, yet 
none the less painful to the Italian State and people. 

"The second propaganda, however, was as abortive as the of- 
fensive whose path it was supposed to blaze. Like the offensive 
itself, it was an entirely Austrian affair. In it the pupil, Arthur 
Arz von Straussenburg, Chief- of the Austro-Hungarian Staff, at- 
tempted to rival his master, Ludendorff, in ingenuity. And it is 
of some satisfaction to us over here that Straussenburg's failure 
was measurably due to the counterpropaganda conducted in Italy 
by the American Red Cross. 

"It is not, of course, asserted that the Americans produced an 
intellectual revolution in Italy. Caporetto had already done 
that. The symbol of 'Savoia' had been repulsed by the actuality 
of 'Italia.' The traitors had been 'tagged' whether hiding be- 
hind the platitudes of pacifism, the red flag, or the cassock. And, 
fully aware when and where the offensive was to take place, the 
army heads were fully prepared to deal with the enemy agents 
masquerading in the Italian uniform and speaking the Italian 
language, who, with pockets full of kronen, should mingle with 
Italian soldiers and civilians during the confusion of the first 
shock — so it had been at Caporetto. 

"The army, on this occasion, could take care of itself— did, 
in fact, take care of itself, as events have proved — but there were 
the people at home, in small towns and villages, who had accepted 
Caporetto as a retribution, not as a revelation. In these places 
the American Red Cross set to work. The ground had been 
prepared, the seed sown. But it needed the sunshine of en- 
couragement, the rain of faith and of distant help not to be 
delayed in order to reveal its best patriotic fruit. These things 
the Americans brought. 

"As far back as the m-iddle of May evidence of their work 
was sent out of Italy in a letter by a member of the British Red 
Cross — all the more significant as it sets an example for the 
writer's own organization to follow. This letter was printed in 
the London Times of May 25^ — just three weeks before the Aus- 
trian military offensive began — and reads in part as follows: 

" 'The American Red Cross, under the auspices of the Amer- 
ican Government, has been engaged recently in a whirlwind prop- 
aganda campaign throughout the whole of Italy, carried out with 
characteristic thoroughness and vigor. 

" 'Their officials, assisted by Italian and British helpers, have 



Against the Allies 13 

visited every commune in Italy, carrying with them a message 
from the American Nation to the Italian people, together with 
tangible proof of their friendship. 

" 'They were everywhere received with great enthusiasm, not 
only because of the gifts they brought, but more especially be- 
cause they mixed with the people of all classes, talked with them 
and to them, and made each of them feel that the whole power 
and strength of the American Nation was with each one of 
them individually.' 

"Some day the literature used by Austria in her second prop- 
aganda of treason in Italy will form, if preserved, a most interest- 
ing literary collection. While the Austro-Hungarian soldiers 
were starving or freezing on the heights of Asiago and Grappa, 
or dying from pneumonia or tuberculosis in the drowned lands 
of the Piave, Field Marshal von Straussenburg was spending thou- 
sands of kronen on printing plants at Bolzano and Trent and re- 
establishing the deserted newspaper offices of Udine. In these 
places were printed all sorts of publications in the Italian lan- 
guage — some with pictures and cartoons to which the forged 
signatures of Italian artists were attached. They consisted of 
newspapers and periodicals, leaflets and bulletins, and illustrated 
reviews. 

"Millions of copies were printed and were at first unsus- 
pectingly admitted as wrappers around parcels sent into Italy 
through Switzerland. These first copies contained nothing 
startling — merely pitiful stories of Italy's suffering, the hope that 
the war would soon be over, and that Austria, with half her 
population, would not prove inflexible in regard to freeing her 
Italian subjects. These were followed by others of more pro- 
nounced views— still innocently read by the literate guards at 
isolatea railway stations and bridges, who had not seen a news- 
paper for many months. 

"Then packages of them arrived, as though dispatched by mis- 
take, with addresses which had no existence. At the beginning 
of winter they would have been quickly soaked in a mixture of oil 
and wax and turned into 'caldoranci'- — tapers which keep the 
Italian soldier's hands from freezing and his coffee hot — but as it 
was spring they were innocently passed around and finally made 
their way from the Astico and the Adige to beyond the Po. 

"When finally the authorities became aware of large quantities 
of precious paper coming from Switzerland down the Adige and 
Piave in small boats which had apparently escaped from their 
moorings, they made an investigation; just as obviously treason- 
able matter was being innocently rescued from the waves and 
distributed. Some, of course, was not innocently distributed, but 
carried south by Austrian agents, where it was availed of in a 
hundred ways — perhaps read in the meantime — owing to the 
scarcity of paper. 

"'The scope of this propaganda may be gathered from the 
titles of some of the papers and periodicals: II Soldato, La Ver- 
itd, II Gazettino, L'Idea Democratica. L'Independente, II Cor- 
riere di Trincea, etc. Then there was the Gazzetta del Veneto. 
which was supposed to be printed in Venice itself. Over fifty 
titles have already been recorded, but doubtless in many cases 
the titles did not survive more than one edition. 

"After the form of propaganda already noted, another suc- 
ceeded in which England was at first sneered at and then at- 
tacked. This was undertaken by a series of publications intended 
by their titles to arrest the attention of more intelligent soldiers 



14 Propaganda 

and civilians: La Yoce del Piave, La Lettura in Trincea, L'Ora 
Presente, II Cavallo di Frisia, La Tradotta and La Ciberna, to 
mention only a few. 

"In the bolder of these England is described as having cor- 
rupted the Italian Government' — 'Poor Italy has become its slave 
and the unhappy soldiers are dying for England and its insatiable 
capitalists, but God will punish England'^ — 'Dio punisca I'lnghil- 
terra.' 

"Another asks: 'Why should the Italian Government, paid 
by English gold, force the poor Italian soldiers to redeem their 
happy countrymen in Austria when other Italians are suffering 
under the foreigner's yoke in Savoy, Corsica and Malta?' 

"One of the papers contains a caricature of King Victor Em- 
manuel in dwarf shape weighed down with bags marked £ lead- 
ing a crowd of stalwart Italian soldiers, whose numbers fade in 
perspective, over a cliff. Under it is the legend: 'Unico remedio, 
romperla con la perfida Inghilterra, far la pace con I'angelica 
Austria' — 'the only remedy; break with perfidious England, make 
peace with angelic Austria.' 

"Just before the offensive of June 15 the Austrians, not know- 
ing that their campaign of 'education' was already lost and 
that the paper, as dear in Austria as in Italy, which they had 
so lavishly distributed, was being put to many useful ends in 
Italy, loaded down their aviators with propaganda literature. 
This last effort in print and often in color illustrations paid 
attention to several recent events in Italy— the danger that their 
beloved church was suffering at the hands of the Freemasons, 
the danger of taking the 'treasonable' Czechoslovaks to their 
bosom, and, above all, the illusion that that aid would come from 
America. This last theme was emphasized by vulgar cartoons 
of President Wilson designated as 'the man of many promises.' 

"It. was thus into an atmosphere more or less depressed, 
more or less colored by the literature of these specious phrases 
and pictures, that the American Red Cross penetrated, bringing 
substantial aid to those suffering physically and words of cheer 
and hope to those mentally depressed with the horrors of war 
and the seductive propaganda of von Straussenburg. 

There seems to be here a lesson well worth learning in the art of 
war by propaganda. The Germans have shown marvelous skill and 
thoroughness in their scb ernes, but they are always schemes. They 
have a cruel and tyrannous ambition, and their means of attain- 
ing it are colored by it. The pride and delight they take in foul 
play arouse a sense at first of horror, then of nausea, then almost of 
cynicism toward the hope of fighting such dirty fighters Avith clean 
hands. 

But it should never be forgotten that the eternal destruction of 
German methods is their own internal corruption. They are im- 
mensely clever, but not at all wise. They have enormous talent 
for conquest, but no geniiis for endearing themselves to the con- 
quered. 

The temptation is incessant to fight their lies with other lies ; to 
take up their challenge and become assassins also. But if there 



Against the Allies 15 

were no other argument against this detestable extreme, its own 
futility would condemn it. The sunlight is the great antiseptic. 
The truth is the best answer to slander. The best enemy of tyranny 
is equality, and the keenest sword against cruelty is the irresistible 
weapon of mercy. 

It is comforting and reassuring to emphasize the fact that the 
aid given by the American Eed Cross to Italy was not only beauti- 
ful as charity, but also the very inspiration of strategy. 

THE TECHNIQUE OF TRENCH PROPAGANDA. 

There is something Satanic in the persistent shamelessness of 
German ingenuities. Having no liberty or justice to proclaim as a 
recommendation of their cause, they are driven to lies. ]N"o slander 
seems too vile or too cheap to attempt in the evident belief that 
each of the lies will find its own congenial soil. 

The methods of getting their propaganda into the trenches are 
many; they are dropped from airships, smuggled into the country 
from neutral nations, then carried to the lines by spies, or sent 
over by toy balloons, tied to rocks and thrown over, or even carried 
across by daring volunteers. 

There has been all too much evidence of the military import- 
ance given to this mode of warfare of the Germans, but the final 
confirmation is seen in the following astounding order found April 
11, 1918, on a German soldier taken prisoner by the French troops 
in Italy. The soldier had disobeyed the directions not to take this 
order into the front line trenches. The reasons for such a Verhot 
are manifest in the order, which reads as follows : 

"Two Hundred and Eighty-first Division, first section, No. 226. 

"Confidential — Not to be communicated to the troops in the 
first line: 

"First — Following the telephone order Geroch No. 2089, you 
are asked to intensify with efficacy the propaganda with the 
enemy army. 

"Second — The object of this propaganda is to disorganize the 
enemy army and to obtain information regarding it. The propa- 
ganda must be carried out in the following manner: 

"A — By throwing into the enemy's trenches newspapers and 
proclamations destined for the more intelligent elements. 

"B — By persuading the troops by oral propaganda. For that 
it will be necessary to utilize officers, non-commissioned officers 
and soldiers who appear to be most adept. 

"The post for taking contact with the enemy must be placed 
under the direction of the company commanders who must be in 
the first line positions. These officers must ascertain the points 
where it will be the easiest to throw into the enemy's trenches 



16 Propaganda 

newspapers, proclamations, etc. At those points you must seek to 
gain contact with the enemy by means of our interpreters and 
if the enemy consents, then fix an hour for future conversations. 

"You must then advise immediately by telephone the chiefs 
of the Information Bureau of the division of every contact with 
the enemy. Only the chief of the Information Bureau will have 
the right to direct the conversations according to the instructions 
he has received. 

"It is rigorously prohibited for any soldier to enter into 
relation with the enemy except those who have received the 
mission to do so, for fear that the enemy may seek to profit by 
their ingenuousness. 

"All letters and printed matter which the enemy may have 
on his person must be taken from him and transmitted to the 
chief of the Information Bureau. 

"In these enterprises for obtaining contact with the enemy 
success depends on the ability with which you operate. Good 
results can be obtained by calling in a friendly tone and indicat- 
ing sentiments of comradeship or by reiterating promises not to 
fire and by offers of tobacco. The tobacco for this purpose will 
be furnished by the Company commanders. 

"Every evening at 8 o'clock the company commanders must 
transmit directly to the Information officer a report of the propa- 
ganda accomplished during the day. This report must contain 
the following indications: 

"A — Has the enemy picked up our newspapers and proclama- 
tions? 

"B — Have you endeavored to enter into relations with the 
enemy? 

"C — With whom have you had contact? Officers? Non-com- 
missioned officers? Soldiers? 

"D — Where and when were our newspapers and proclamations 
thrown into the enemy's trenches? 

"E — All other information on the enemy's conduct. 

"At the same time our interpreters will send to the chief of 
the Information Bureau a detailed report on all conversations 
they may have had with the enemy. 

"The enemy's positions when propaganda is under way must 
not be shelled by our artillery. They must be bombarded in 
case of attack. The company commanders must indicate to 
the batteries the position of these. 

"The enemy is perfidious and without honor and it is neces- 
sary as a consequence to be careful that they neither take our 
propagandists prisoner nor kill them. Those of our soldiers who 
leave our lines for the purposes of carrying newspapers and 
pamphlets to the enemy must be advised.' To protect them it 
will be necessary to constitute with care special detachments 
who will mount guard in the trenches and who will fire only 
on the order of the company commanders who are directing the 
relations with the enemy." 

An almost exact duplicate of this order had been issued nearly 
a year before at the time when the Germans were undermining the 
Eussian army, and starting their campaign of fatal "fraternization." 
This order was published in the Petrograd papers and later in the 
Moscow Russkoye Slovo of December 1, 1917. It was an official 



Against the Allies 17 

order of the German General Staff to the 318th Army Division, 
First Section, No. 266, and is signed "J. V. D. B. D. K. The chief 
of the Division (on leave of absence) per Kreinberg, general, major 
and chief of the 6 2d Brigade." 

It is practically identical with the order quoted above except 
that in 2 B it advises "selecting credulous officers and sergeants in 
the enemy troops" and there is later a positive order that "written 
and printed matter brought by the enemy must be accepted and 
immediately forwarded to the head of the bureau of information. 
It is strictly forbidden to open them and, in general, to touch them,'" 
and the caution is added, "the success of opening communications 
with the enemy by the above-described methods depends on the 
adroitness with which the first steps are made. Shouts will only 
frighten the enemy, who is timid by nature, and throw the whole 
post into alarm." The same quaint statement is made that "the 
enemy is crafty and faithless." 

The overwhelming victory achieved by this form of propaganda 
in Eussia naturally suggested its repetition against the Italians, 
where it had like success. 

The balloon propagandists have, of course, taken goo;l care of 
the American troops as they arrive. Edwin L. James describes 
some of their recent attentions : 

"WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY ON THE MARNE, July 6.— 
Germany has started to try her subtle propaganda on the Amer- 
ican soldiers. On July 4, for the first time on this sector, hot air 
balloons floated over our lines with an automatic attachment scat- 
tering at intervals large numbers of propaganda pamphlets and 
copies of the infamous Gazette des Ardennes. 

"One story has a conspicuously large number of surrendered 
Germans telling our soldiers that the Hun soldiers do not want 
to fight any more, but are driven on by their commanders. This 
at the time when our commanders know full well that with their 
comrades these same men in Germany are about to launch a 
powerful drive. 

"The Gazette des Ardennes, dropped over our lines, contained 
scraps of news culled all over the world, and items most favorable 
to Germany. There was no mention of anything American, but 
many items dealing with trading and intended to promote discord 
among the allies. 

"One pamphlet entitled 'Who Really Started the War' con- 
tains data blaming Russia and England. Many attempts are 
made to show that the published facts as to Gterman atrocities ' 
were false. It reproduces a picture from the New York Tribune 
of October, 1914, purporting to show Belgian soldiers in the tower 
of a cathedral which the Germans destroyed. 

"Another pamphlet reproduces a large number of pictures and 
jests of French papers directed against the English. Some of 
these are ten years old. 



18 Propaganda 

"Judging from the reception this propaganda got among our 
soldiers, it is safe to say that the vaunted propaganda of the 
Kaiser will do no better against our doughboys than his vaunted 
guard divisions. 

"There is no bolshevik, no pacifist, no irrational idealist among 
the American soldiers. Their thinking is confined to beating the 
boche, and they are perfectly willing to allow the political and 
economic questions to be settled after the war, when there will 
be plenty of time for such things. Now they have time only for 
beating Germany." 

A h'pe of the material sent into onr lines is contained in the 
following report from General Pershing: 

"In the Colmar sector, on July 1, an amusing example of Ger- 
man propaganda designed to induce our men to surrender easily 
was found. A German plane dropped in our line a postcard 
reading: 

" 'Soldiers of the United States of America say that we kill 
prisoners of war or do them some other harm. Don't be such 
greenhorns. How can you smart Americans believe such a silly 
thing.' " 

COOPERATION INSIDE THE LINES : ""dEFEATIST" PROPAGANDA. 

It must be understood that the creators of such propaganda 
do not rely on their own unaided influence from outside. Thej^ 
cooperate with the elements at home which are always opposed to 
any war. The pacifists, the anarchists, the disgruntled political 
elements have worked, more or less unconsciously, hand in hand with 
the German-Austrian propagandists, from before the outbreak of 
this conflict. 

This is the peculiar encouragement to propaganda. ]S^o war 
has ever been so holy as to win the approval of the entire nation. 
During the American Revolution, the Tory element was exceedingly 
large. General Washington often found it difficult even to buy 
provisions. He almost lost his post as general-in-ehief as a result 
of the Conway Cabal, a form of propaganda. During the war of 
1812, politics almost split the country apart, and at the height 
of the Civil War, President Lincoln had a narrow escape from 
defeat when he stood for re-election. 

In France, England and Italy there are large masses of persons 
opposed to the national cause. This is equally true of Germany, 
Austria, Turkey and other nationalities. 

These disaffected elements furnish a fertile soil for the seeds 
of propaganda. They can easily be turned from passive spectators 
of the agony of their country, to active opponents of its military 
success. 



Against the Allies 19 

There is also in every population a certain faint-hearted element 
that magnifies every check into a failure, every strategic side-step 
into a retreat, every retreat into a disaster. These congenital pes- 
simists see all of their country's mistakes, crimes, disappointments 
and failures, and none of its achievements; they can not imagine 
that the enemy has also his ignorance, terror, error, and crime to 
dishearten him. 

General Grant learned that the enemy was just as afraid of him 
as he was of the enemy. But that form of philosophy is not uni- 
versal, and we have constantly to combat the timid spirits and the 
irresolute. They start panics of their own at the first opportunity 
and their depression is dangerously contagious. In Europe this 
form of involuntary treason is called "defeatist propaganda." 

In the United States there is the normal percentage of these 
disconsolate people, also an extraordinarily large number of persons 
of alien birth or sympathy; and finally a multitude of citizens so 
used to the air of freedom and so devoted to their own individual 
sovereignty and their constitutional prerogatives that they will not 
tolerate any discipline or coercion. These persons prize liberties 
rather than liberty, and they form a most dangerous element. 

Varied as the motives may be of those who refuse assistance 
or offer resistance to the unified action of the country, they are all 
actual enemies of the national success. They consume supplies and 
produce nothing toward victory. They are not even benevolently 
neutral; they form a garrison of hostile partisans and a rallying 
point and an encouragement for spies and enemies. 

BOLO PASHA AND THE BONNET ROUGE, 

Paris has suffered from attacks by Zeppelins, airships, and long- 
range cannon. It has suffered more from propaganda of every 
sort. Some of this has been put out under the most clever disguise. 
Peculiarly odious was the unscrupulous purchase of treason in 
the Bolo Pasha case. A more contemptible tool has rarely been 
foisted into immortality. This international figure with the pic- 
turesque name of Bolo was a dentist in Marseilles in his early twen- 
ties, later a lobster merchant. He stole his partner's money and 
wife and eloped with both to Spain. Five years later he was in 
Paris and soon jailed for business dishonesty. He robbed the niece 
of his landlord of her dowry. He married an actress at Bordeaux 
and deserted her. He was arrested in Buenos Aires. He com- 



20 Propaganda 

mitted bigamy and married the widow of a Bordeaux wine merchant 
and lost her money in investments. 

He later became the friend and financial adviser of Abbas 
Hilmi, Khedive of Egypt, and received the title of Pasha. He 
was associated in many ventures with the notorious Senator Hum- 
bert, who was involved with him in the use of German money for 
controlling the Paris Journal. 

In 1914 Bolo met in Cuba Adolph Pavenstedt, now interned, 
a close friend of Von Bernstorff. They came to iSTew York and 
initiated a banking scheme that fell through. Bolo returned to 
France. He had spent all of his wife's fortune except an inaccess- 
ible trust fund. He lived on the income from that, but sought 
wider fields. 

After the outbreak of the war he met his old friend, the Khedive, 
in Switzerland, and through him the German Minister, Von 
Jagow, who provided a fund of ten million marks to be used by 
Bolo to influence the French press for a premature peace, aiming to 
detach France from England. 

Bolo returned to France, where one Cavallini brought him $400,- 
000 to be used for a ''defeatist'' and "pacifist" propaganda. Bolo 
explained to the curious that this sum was the repayment of a loan 
he had made to the Khedive. 

In N"ovember, 1915, Bolo went to Switzerland and negotiated 
through the Khedive with several German agents. The Khedive 
stated that Bolo represented Herve, publisher of La Victoire, 
Joseph Caillaux and others, and that Bolo was to transmit moneys 
to them. The Khedive received from Germany two million marks, 
which he turned over to Bolo to fund the peace propaganda. , 

The next year Bolo came to the United States with a letter 
from Humbert to J. P. Morgan & Co., saying that he came to see 
important personages and would deposit a million francs to Hum- 
bert's account. Actually Bolo seems to have been short of funds, 
and to have had a credit with a German bank of only $2,500. 

Bolo met Pavenstedt again, and told him that he came to raise 
money to pay his debt to Humbert and also to buy into several 
small journals. He began negotiations looking toward the purchase 
in Canada of large supplies of print paper. He met many prom- 
inent men, who were later more or less embarrassed to explain 
their associations with him. 

He protested that he wanted to persuade his bleeding country 
to make peace. Pavenstedt told him the truth when he said that 



Against the Allies 21 

uo one in America was so much interested in this as the German 
Ambassador. 

After cabling to Von Jagow and many conferences, Von Bern- 
storff arranged the deposit of sums totaling $1,683,500. The tele- 
grams and cablegrams were captured" by the United States officials. 
A simple code was used, Count Bernstorff being referred to as 
"Charles Gledhill," the Guaranty Trust Company as "Fred Hee- 
ven," the Foreign Office as "William Foxley." The sums of money 
were divided by one thousand. 

Thus Hugo Schmidt cabled the Deutsche Bank in Berlin : 
"Your wireless received. Paid Charles Gledhill five hundred 
through Fred Heeven. Gledhill requires further eleven hundred 
dollars, which shall pay gradually." 

This meant, "Paid Bernstorff five hundred thousand dollars. 
Bernstorff requires further eleven hundred thousand dollars." 

Bolo invested a million francs in the Paris Journal^ and he, 
Caillaux and various newspaper editors kept up a vigorous prop- 
aganda to the effect that France could not win and early peace was 
necessary. 

Caillaux went to Italy to spread this idea there. 
The activities of these propagandists attracted the lightning of 
French indignation. Bolo, Caillaux and others were arrested under 
charges of treason. 

The Bolo trial opened February 4, 1918, in Paris. He was ac- 
cused of communicating with the enemy in Switzerland, receiving 
German money to further the pacifist movement, and receiving- 
German money in the United States to influence French newspapers, 
particularly the Journal. 

He was found guilty. His co-defendant, Cavallini, was also sen- 
tenced to death, but was in prison in Italy at the time and could 
not be reached. At the time of this writing Caillaux has not yet 
been tried. 

Involved with the Journal was a paper called the Bonnet Rouge, 
whose directors were also charged with treason. 

The Bonnet Rouge pretended to be violently patriotic. It was 
remarkable for a violent chauvinism beginning with its very name, 
"The Eed Cap," meaning, of course, the Liberty Cap of the French 
Eevolution. 

Though Bolo Pasha was a propagandist by newspaper and by 
ingeniously managed peace proposals, the military importance of 



22 Propaganda 

his activity was recognized in his punishment: He was stood up 
against a wall and shot. 

The easy TT-nnsition from such propaganda to actual spying and 
the gathering and transmitting of information to the enemy is seen 
in the following excerpts from reports of the trial of confederates : 

"Paris, May 3, 1918. — The most of today's session in the trial 
of the directors of the Bonnet Rouge, the defunct socialist and 
Germanophile newspaper, was taken up with consideration of 
trips to Switzerland by M. Vercasson, one of the accused men, in 
behalf of M. Duval, a director of the Bonnet Rouge, who also is 
on trial. M. Germanain, an expert accountant, testified that Ver- 
casson brought from Switzerland 475,000 francs which he gave to 
Duval. He said that Vercasson's operations appeared to be regu- 
lar and in good faith, and that he personally benefited to the 
extent of 25,000 francs from his work. 

"The close relation between the Bonnet Rouge case and 
the prosecution of Bolo Pasha was established when Police Com- 
missioner Faralicq, who is charged with the investigation of the 
Bonnet Rouge affair, testified that Abbas Hilmi, former Khedive 
of Egypt, had obtained in 1916 a complete report concerning the 
conditions existing in General Sarrail'sarmy at Saloniki. 

"A man called Adda, private secretary to Yozen Pasha, came 
to France frequently and always returned with important mili- 
tary information. The report concerning the condition at Sa- 
loniki was full and complete, showing that General Sarrail's 
army was unable to take the offensive, giving the exact number 
of men incapacitated by sickness and disease, and the exact losses 
in recent battles in Macedonia. 

"The report was a copy of a document sent by General Sar- 
rail to the French Government exposing the situation and asking 
for reinforcements. Mme. Lewis, former stenographer for M. 
Marion, assistant manager of the Bonnet Rouge, identified the 
document, which she typed at her employer's request. 

"They were copies of two letters from General Sarrail to the 
minister of war, two telegrams and a ten-page letter from Captain 
Mathieu to M. Paix-Seailles, who was suspected in January of 
having given important military information to unauthorized 
persons and was tried before a court-martial concerning the 
situation at Saloniki. M. Paix-Seailles was called to the stand and 
admitted giving the documents to Miguel Almereyda, another of 
the accused who died in prison before the trial began. 

"Paris, May 7. — Lieutenant Marchand, an interpreter in the 
French army and an expert in German propaganda, was the prin- 
cipal witness at the trial of the directors of the Bonnet Rouge 
today. He showed the similarity between the policy pursued by 
the Bonnet Rouge and that of the Gazette of Ardennes, a paper 
which the Germans publish in the occupied districts of northern 
France, using the French language. 

"The purpose of the Gazette, Lieutenant Marchand stated, was 
to influence the French population remaining in the occupied 
districts. Some articles which the censors had prevented appear- 
ing in the Bonnet Rouge nevertheless appeared in the paper 
issued by a German agency at Zurich. 

"Many articles that appears i in the Gazette and were re- 
printed in the Bonnet Rouge showed a tendency to ridicule the 



Against the Allies 23 

idea of German spies working in France to discourage soldiers 
and dishearten the civilian population. Lieutenant Marchand 
pointed out fifteen different press campaigns in which the 
Gazette, the Bonnet Rouge and the Germanophile newspaper at 
Zurich all used the same arguments, cited the same facts, and 
even showed the same style of composition and the same errors 
in citation. 

"Paris, May 11.— The trial entered its last phases today, when 
Captain Mornet, the prosecutor, summed up his case for the State. 
Captain Mornet began by explaining that this was not a press 
trial, but an affair of treason and relations with the enemy. He 
said that by conversations about the San Stefano Casino Company 
with Marx, the Mannheim banker, M. Duval, one of the accused, 
had been drawn little by little into treason, receiving money from 
Marx and working for an early peace between France and Ger- 
many. 

"The prosecutor recited the history of the Bonnet Rouge, re- 
calling that one of its directors, Miguel Almareyda, who died 
before the trial began, had, with six judicial condemnations 
against him, received 40,000 francs from Joseph Caillaux, ex- 
Premier, in February, 1914. The Bonnet Rouge, he said, had 
violently defended Mme. Caillaux following the shooting by her 
of Editor Calmmette in March, 1914. He said that Almereyda 
had formed a bodyguard to escort M. Caillaux to the courtroom 
and had distributed cards of admission to the trial of Mme. Cail- 
laux. 

"Captain Mornet read articles showing the peace at any price 
policy of the Bonnet Rouge. One quotation was: 

" 'President Wilson's action is evidently a victory for those 
who will fight to the bitter end, but war is not won by such vic- 
tories.' 

"The connection of M. Caillaux with the present case was 
solely examined by the prosecutor, who said: 

" 'Marx is such an important agent of Germany that when the 
German government wished to enter into relations or renew rela- 
tions, with the French ex-Premier, who, it is believed, rightly or 
wrongly, was favorable to it, it sent two documents to the ex- 
Premier's Paris address. One offered an appointment and the 
other gave the address of Banker Marx. Both were seized in M. 
Caillaux's safe in a Florence bank. The first read: "Lipsher not 
appearing desirable as an intermediary, I put myself at your dis- 
posal. I am authorized to establish relations such as you desire."' 
The other read: "H. A. Marx, care of Professor Erbertz, 27 Stoer- 
nerstrasse, Berne." 

" 'I think I am entitled to identify the H. A. Marx of the Cail- 
laux affair as the H. A. Marx of the Bonnet Rouge affair.' 

"Paris, May 15. — Director Duval was condemned to death after 
only a half hour's deliberation. Marion was' sentenced to ten 
years at hard labor; Landan and Goldsky, two writers, to eight 
years each; Joncla to five years; Jean Leymarie, director of the 
interior ministry under Malvy and afterward head of the secret 
service, to two years, and Vercasson to two years. 

"Paris, May 23. — The trial of Sergeant Paix-Seailles and Captain 
Mathieu began. They were court-martialed, charged with divulg- 
ing confidential documents belonging to the War Office. 

"Paix, who is a wealthy man, was formerly attached to the 
Ministry of Inventions in Paris, and Mathieu was an orderly offi- 



24 Propaganda 

cer to General Sarrail when the latter was Commander-in-Chief 
at Saloniki.. 

"The judicial inquiry, in its preliminary stages, showed that 
on August 8th last, when the authorities raided the house of 
Almereyda, the notorious chief of the Bonnet Rouge gang, who 
strangled himself with his bootlace in prison shortly after, they 
found among his papers copies of five important confidential let- 
ters which were sent by Sarrail between March and June, 1916, 
to Messimy, who was then War Minister in the Briand Cabinet, 
and Noulens, President of the Army Committee. 

"There were also copies of telegrams from Joffre, then Com- 
mander-in-chief, and Briand. Paix admitted that he handed these 
documents to Almereyda for the purpose of using them in a press 
campaign in favor of Sarrail, and Mathieu made no secret of the 
fact that it was he who handed the papers to Paix. The use 
which Almereyda made of the documents was to have them 
copied and sent by one of the Bonnet Rouge gang to Spain, 
whence they quickly reached the hands of the Germans. 

"It is alleged that the documents disclosed important informa- 
tion in regard to the strength of the Saloniki army, and had real 
infiuence in modifying the direction of the campaign on that 
front." 

Thus we see demonstrated what may always be expected, and 
-suspected, that the propagandist who is zealous in scattering false- 
.hoods is on the alert to pick up truths of value to the enemy. The 
spy and the propagandist have the same end and ambition. 



CHAPTEE II. 
PEOPAGANDA AMOKG NEUTEAL NATIONS. 

In a war of world-wide magnitude, such a thing as neutrality 
is practically impossible. All of the neutral nations have their 
favorites and bet on them. The nearest approach to neutrality 
is a wavering from one side to the other, now helping this, now 
that, with a possibility of being swung all the way over to one side 
or the other at any time. 

Propaganda has a vitally important role to play here, since the 
capture or the loss of a neutral nation, however small, means jtist 
so much increase of efficiency or difficulty of supply; just so many 
troops released for the firing line or withdrawn from it, and perhaps 
the addition of a considerable army of reinforcements or the ap- 
pearance of that army in the enemy's line. 

Germany promptly established her centers of propaganda 
activity in all the neutral nations. They have been expelled from 
some places because of their excess of zeal, but in others they have 
been allowed to work almost as if on their home soil. 

Where they are not able to justify the acts of Germany, they 
devote their energies to casting ugly light on the motives of the 
Allies. They have accomplished much when they have prevented 
the neutral from actually declaring war on German}^, or at least 
severing diplomatic and trade relations. 

The position of neutral peoples in a war so nearly universal 
as this is very difficult. Self-preservation is their first object, and 
they must keep the future in mind. Therefore, in all neutral 
countries the opinion of the officials and the public inevitably swings 
toward the side that seems likely to win in the end. 

Many will feel a certain sympathy for the underdog, but the 
upper dog wins the respect of all, and a desire not to offend him or 
attract his hostile interest. Once the belief obtains in a neutral 
nation that the United States and its Allies are bound to lose, this 
neutral nation will endeavor to curry favor with the enemy, assist 
him in numberless ways, give him help in commercial affairs and 
supplies and hamper us. 

This has a direct and hazardous influence on our military 
progress. 

■ 25 



26 Propaganda 

THE CENTKAL BUREAU IN SPAIN. 

In Spain and from Spain, Germany has carried on perhaps 
her most vigorous activity. There have been unsupported charges 
of submarine bases near these shores, and countless proofs 
of the use of the country as an intermediary in postal and financial 
transactions. Of Spain as a central bureau of propaganda, there 
has been no doubt. 

It has been important to keep Spain from joining the Allies, 
and to keep in touch with the world of Spanish America, in which 
lies so much of Germany's commercial future. The military value 
of this stronghold makes Spain a Gibraltar of German propaganda. 
, From there she has sent out emissaries and literature broadcast. 
Even the Bedouins of Morocco are not neglected, and a pcinting 
press is kept busy at Mellila, issuing pamphlets for circulation 
among the Arabs in the French colony with the object of persuad- 
ing them to revolt, thus compelling the withdrawal of French 
troops from the front. 

In Barcelona the Germans have collected a few French deserters 
to help publish in French a paper called Truth, in which they drag 
the French Government and Army through the mire. The paper is 
distributed free to the street vendors who consequently flood the 
city with it. 

Spain is naturally eager to side with the victorious party to 
this conflict. Germany has spent millions of dollars to convince 
her that the Allies could not win. An example of her ruthless 
methods is seen in the work of such German papers as Deutsche 
Warte (i. e., the German Beacon), published at Barcelona. On 
November 10, 1917, the following article appeared under great black 
headlines : 

"great GERMAN U-BOAT VICTORY! 

"News comes from Halifax via New York that the North 
American battleship 'Texas' and other units of the North Ameri- 
can fleet were sunk by a German U-boat 75 miles from the 
Island of Guernsey and 120 miles from Cherbourg at the entrance 
of the Channel, the latter part of September of last year. 11,000 
men found their death in the waves, only 3,260 soldiers and 2,585 
men of the crew were saved. 

"Editor's Note: The 'Texas,' 27,400 t., was one of the largest 
ships of the N. American fleet, and was evidently serving as 
guard ship for a larger Troop Transport with other units when 
she fell a victim to the U-boat. The ship was equipped with 10 
guns of 36, 6-21 of 12, 7-4 of 4, 7-2 of 3.7 cent. She had four sub- 
marine torpedo tubes, engines of 32,000 H. P., and a velocity of 



Among Neutral Natiofis ' 27 

21 knots. She was launched May 18th, 1912, and put in service 
shortly before the outbreak of the war." 

Americans know that the story is false, but the Spaniards can 
not be expected to investigate such canards. In view of the im- 
. mense sums spent by Germans on propaganda and the compara- 
tively small sums spent by the Allies, little effort is made to deny 
them. 

When the Tuscania was actually sunk the Deutsche Warte was 
not satisfied to publish the sufficiently important U-boat success, 
nor even to exaggerate the number of soldiers lost. It added the 
statement that another transport even larger and carrying even 
more troops was destroyed at the same time with the total loss of 
all on board. It was announced that the British and Americans 
had suppressed this news altogether and given out a minimized 
story of the Tuscania's destruction. 

This story was published in Mexico by the Deutsche Zeitung 
and in many other Spanish-American countries. A general survey 
of the propaganda war for Spain is given by the Review of Re- 
views for June, 1918, in the following resume of an Italian article : 

"The various aspects of Spain's neutrality in the war are 
passed in review by Signer Romolo Giovannetti in Nuova An- 
tologia (Rome). In common with the belligerent countries, 
Spain has suffered greatly from the inevitable dislocation of the 
economic fabric. Moreover, while prices of the necessaries of 
life have doubled or even trebled, there has been little compensa- 
tion for this through the stimulation of special industries, as 
has been the case with the countries engaged in the war. An 
added trouble has been a revival of the agitation among Cata- 
lonians and Basques in favor of greater independence or quasi- 
autonomy. 

"The uninterrupted propaganda carried on by the Germans 
in favor of the cause of the Central Powers and of Spanish 
neutrality has always found an echo with the Spanish people 
and it can not be denied that the Germans have displayed much 
greater practical sense in this activity than have the Entente 
..Powers. 

"* "From the very beginning of the war, they organized in 
Spain a number of active committees, not only for propaganda 
work, but also for giving aid to those who were suffering from 
the effects of the war, and this has earned for them the sym- 
pathies of thousands of Spaniards. 

"Germany has not hesitated to spend money freely; her pro- 
paganda in Spain is said to have cost her $60,000,000. Not only 
this, but she has sent her best diplomatic agents, her best com- 
mercial agents, her best military attaches and spies of all orders. 

"Given the neglect of Spain by the Allies, and the prejudices 
and misunderstandings that already existed, nothing short of an 
equally active counter-propaganda could have overcome the 
German influence. But the Entente Powers, placing their depen- 



28 Propaganda 

dence upon the personal sympathies of the King and the Queen,, 
have only spent about $20,000 in opposition to the $60,000,000 
of Teuton money. 

"France alone, which was the first nation to understand the 
necessity for effort in this direction, sent into Spain thousands 
of copies of propaganda literature, composed to suit the Spanish 
trend of thought. As almost all Spaniards are professedly 
Catholic, they were inclined to look upon republican France as 
a land of Jacobins and libertines, a land that had fallen a prey 
to anarchy and was destined to a sad downfall. In view of this 
hostile attitude of the Spanish people, the pamphlets issued by 
the French treated the war from a strictly religious standpoint. 
Thus Monsignor Bardrillart, who has recently been publicly 
congratulated for his propaganda work by the French Govern- 
ment, wrote a pamphlet entitled 'The German War and Cath- 
olicism," which had a large circulation in Spain, as had also 
the theological study by the Archbishop of Nice, 'France and 
Germany and the Christian Doctrine Regarding War.' But 
these publications have had little lasting effect. 

"The Spanish press, with the exception of certain liberal 
organs, has been favorable to the Central Powers from the outset 
of the war. A country like Spain, exhausted by the struggles 
of the past century, and longing for peace, for a regenerating 
peace, offered a splendid field for the German propaganda, and 
the Germans have not failed to utilize the opportunity given 
them by the neglect of this land on the part of the Entente." 

The situation in Spain is discussed with much detail in an 

article by Isaac F. Marcosson in the Saturday Evening Post for 

March 16, 1918, from which much of importance may well be 
quoted : 

"No other Continental country presents such a striking ex- 
ample of German efficiency in molding public opinion as Spain. 
Ask any man you meet on the streets or in a club at Barcelona 
or Madrid who is winning the war and he at once replies, 'Ger- 
many, of course.' Go to a restaurant or a seaside resort and you 
hear German on all sides. Make a remark in English, and Teu- 
tonic ears prick up, sharp eyes focus you — you are a marked 
man. To quote an Englishman whom I met at San Sebastian: 
'Germany has lost all her colonies except Spain.' 

"I went to Spain from Italy and therefore had an unusual 
opportunity to get a contrast in German exploitative methods. 
In Italy — a nation at war with the Kaiser — the boche propaganda 
is sly, secret and insidious. Officially under the ban, it works in 
a mysterious way its destruction to attain. 

"In Spain, on the other hand' — a country outside the war — the 
German educational campaign is in full and open swing — defiant, 
aggressive, contemptuous. It not only assails American character 
and institutions, but, what is also important to us, it has de- 
veloped during the last twelve months a bitter offensive against 
American business that, unless combated at once, will impair our 
hard-won and none too-secure commercial footing there. 

"You cannot spend many hours in Spain without discovering 
that Germany has 'got over' her message. In the light of the 
unutterable blunderings of Bernstorff, Dumba, Dernberg, Von 
Papen and Boy-Ed in the United States, this performance seems 



Among Neutral Nations 29 

all the more remarkable. Analyze it and you find that the one 
reason why the German has intrenched himself so firmly in 
Spain is that he has regarded his propaganda as nothing more or 
less than salesmanship. He is a past master in the world-com- 
merce game. Good will for his Emperor and his national aims has 
been sold just like boots, razors, machinery or shoes, and with 
every selling method known to the scientific disposition of mer- 
chandise. The German is a good salesman. 

"Why is Germany so keen about having the friendship and 
support of Spain? You do not have to search very long for the 
answer. When the war is over she will need an unassailable 
social and commercial jumping off place. She will have to get in 
out of the wet somewhere because it will be raining anti-Ger- 
manism for a good while after peace is declared. She will re- 
quire a country where her industry will be a going concern the 
moment that an armistice puts a stop to fighting. This will 
enable her to stamp 'Made in Spain' on her wares and dispose 
of them in markets that will be hostile to any products with the 
Germanic trade-mark. That mark will be regarded in many 
quarters as the brand of a commercial Cain. Spain is part of a 
vast productive scheme that includes Holland and Switzerland. 

"Economic mastery of Spain, however, has peculiar advan- 
tages. It means a step toward the conquest of the Mediterranean, 
which would be a powerful link in the «hain of a world-wide com- 
mercial control and a definite weapon against France. 

"Still another and equally vital reason that comes straight 
home to us is that Spain and South America are closely linked. 
Though the Latin-American republics are far removed and rep- 
resent a totally different idea in national government, they still 
regard Spain as the mother country and take their pleasures and 
fashions from her. 

"If you know anything about German economic penetration 
you also know that its conquest of trade is merely one facet of a 
many-sided ambition. German capital is not only the most exacting 
in the world but likewise the most political. Just as every German 
salesman anywhere on the globe is a secret agent for his govern- 
ment, so is each step in the development of Teutonic foreign 
trade inspired by the spirit of 'For Kaiser and Country.' 

"Two things impressed me forcibly after I had crossed the 
frontier into Spain: One was white bread, the first I had seen in 
months; the other was a German salesman at the little station at 
Portbou, who scrutinized my fellow passengers — they were nearly 
all neutrals — with eagle and almost malevolent eyes. These inci- 
dents revealed two important facts in Spain today: The abundant 
supply of white bread showed that the country was eating 
the bread of peace; the German salesman doing duty at the 
border proved that the German commercial emissary was like- 
wise a German Government agent. Since there are approximately 
80,000 Germans in Spain you get some idea of the army of press 
agents, propagandists and imperial well-wishers that Germany 
has on the job. In a population of 20,000,000 they are an effective 
force. 

"There were nearly 10,000 Germans in Spain before the war. 
This number was increased by the travelers caught on the wing 
at the outbreak of hostilities, by soldiers and civilians from Kam- 
erun, by the exodus from Portugal when that country went to 
war, and by many others who came over from the United States 
to help the cause. No matter where they came from, they begar 
to study Spanish the moment they entered Spain. Here you get 
one of the keys to successful German penetration. 



30 Propaganda 

"Wherever you find German propaganda in Europe or South 
America you also find an effective line of selling talk. This is 
due to the fact that German business and politics are so closely 
related that it is impossible to separate them. In other words, 
Germany's business is politics and her politics business. The 
Fatherland always gets a dividend out of the work of her sons. 

"With few exceptions the leading newspapers of the country 
are pro-German, and not for their health. One of the favorite 
ways of obtaining control of a Spanish newspaper is illustrated 
by this incident: About six months before the war a certain 
Madrid journal bought a complete mechanical equipment from a 
leading German manufacturing concern. No bill was sent. Three 
months after the war began the proprietor casually mentioned 
the fact to the German machinery agent in Madrid, who re- 
plied: 'Forget the bill! We are in the same cause now.' 

"Another accelerator of opinion is that well-known speeder-up 
of newspaper enthusiasm known as the advertising contract. 
Though scores of German firms who formerly advertised heavily 
are now unable to get their products into Spain, their advertising 
goes on just the same; and what is more important, it is being 
paid for. 

"When Germany captures the little village of X it is spread 
all over the front pages. Allied victories get scant notice. Under 
special instructions from Berlin the Spanish Germanophile news- 
papers play up the submarine campaign. Read the Spanish news- 
papers without knowledge of what is' going on and you would 
think that the British mercantile marine is at the bottom of the 
sea. 

"This highly organized campaign must be financed. Where does 
the money come from? Until we went to war a great deal of it 
was shipped from the United States on credits telegraphed from 
Berlin. As soon as we entered hostilities this shipment of gold 
ceased. So much had been sent, however, that Germany, for 
the present at least, has ample funds with which to continue her 
work. Any shortage can be supplied from the German banks in 
South America, which are easily accessible from Spain. If these 
fail it is always easy for a so-called Spanish firm in New York to 
send funds to its correspondent in Barcelona, and these funds 
in turn find their way sooner or later to the German Embassy 
in Madrid, which is the box office of the whole German move- 
ment. 

"This whole network of espionage and propaganda leads to 
one portal — the gateway of business. The Germans in Spain realize 
that the war must end some day. Even into their brazen con- 
sciousness is being soaked the realization that it will not end 
their way. Their commerce must go on regardless of the result. 
Nowhere outside the Fatherland — save possibly in Switzerland — 
is it more important that it should be a productive institution 
than in Spain, for reasons that I have already mentioned. What 
is she doing? 

"The whole German propaganda in Spain is flavored with 
insinuation aimed to shake confidence in the Allies. I overheard 
a German, speaking in German to a Spaniard, make this remark: 

" ' Isn't it too bad that there is so much discord among the 
Allies? It is a well-known fact that France is already angry 
because the Americans are not fighting. Pershing and Haig have 
had a serious disagreement about policy. There is no harmony.' 

"A favorite German innuendo relates to what is alleged to be 
the friction between England and France. As in Italy, the 



Among Xeiitial Nations 31 

effort is made to create an impression that the United States is 
being used to save the face of the Allies. The pro-German press 
prints this libel, and millions of the people believe what they 
read. 

"All the Allies are in the same boat. France is pictured as 
preparing to follow the Napoleonic invasion of the Peninsula; 
Portugal is to annex several provinces in the west; Great Britain 
is to inaugurate a campaign of conquest from Gibraltar. It is 
all grist in the mill of misinformation. 

"Uncle Sam and John Bull are pilloried side by side. The 
Germans continually harp on the British possession of Gibraltar, 
using the cry 'Gibraltar for the Spanish!' They refer to us as 
'Yankee despoilers.' 

"Here is a characteristic example of how the German seeks 
to poison the Spanish mind against the United States: A few 
months before I reached Spain there appeared in the Madrid 
ABC, the leading metropolitan pro-German newspaper, a spe- 
cial dispatch from its correspondent in New York. It stated in 
substance that in the effort to stimulate recruiting the United 
States Government had displayed a machine gun captured from 
the Spanish in Cuba in front of a recruiting office in New York 
City. The article further stated that this gun stood on a Spanish 
flag and bore a placard saying: 'Enlist for the war. Remember 
the Maine and Spain!' 

"Of course this article created widespread indignation. The 
situation became so acute that Ambassador Willard cabled to the 
State Department and got an official denial of the incident, which 
was printed in friendly journals. The ABC, however, refused 
to publish it. Like most other corrections, however, it had no 
effect. The damaging item is always the one that is read and 
remembered. 

"This incident shows how bitter is the anti-American cam- 
paign and to what extent the Germans will go. The article was 
signed by the regular New York correspondent of the ABC and 
was presumably a cablegram. If the United States Government 
permits such matter to be passed there is something wrong with 
the censorship. 

"Attacks on President Wilson appear almost daily in the 
press. Let me present three extracts from La Trihuna of Madrid, 
one of the leading pro-German publications. The first, which 
deals with the President's reply to the Pope's peace offer, is as 
follows: 

" 'In my last article I gave a brief account of the horrible 
crime committed by Wilson against Nicaragua. If this were not 
more than enough to show that the Yankee President is disquali- 
fied in law and in equity to speak to us Europeans in such words 
as he uses in his answer to the Pope — if the moral opinion of 
the world had not been excited against the cynicism and un- 
equaled perversities of Wilson, who, though on trial for Zcse- 
humanite, has tried to constitute himself the judge of Europe 
and America, unfortunately there still exist, to the shame of 
humanity and the dishonor of civilization, other monstrous deeds 
done by Wilson, against which the world has not protested. 
* * * No; we must tear the mask from the hypocrite, Wilson.' 

"The second is equally vituperative, and reads: 

" 'After having carefully examined the sinister chapters of 
Yankee Imperialistic History, each and every one of which is a 
crime whose principal author is the actual President Wilson, our 
heart rebels against this man, against this Puritan who has the 
barefaced insolence to appear as a mediator between nations. 



32 Propaganda 

This is his role in his speeches and proclamations, but his deeds 
are those of brute force, of war without quarter, of inconceivable 
extermination and devastation. Blushing at the sight of the 
repulsive creature, we ask ourselves the question whether the 
moral sense of humanity has been perverted when it listens to 
the words of the false and evil Wilson.' 

"Next comes this pleasantry, which deals with our 'crime in 
Mexico': 

" 'Is there a reader in Spain who does not know that Mexico 
has for long years been to the utmost a victim of the United 
States? California, Texas and other Aztec lands bear continual 
witness to this. And the devastation and affliction of the Mexican 
Republic in these last years, from the fall of Porfirio Diaz till 
the nomination of Carranza — who can doubt that these lie heav- 
ily on the conscience of Wilson? * * * 

" 'And we feel that in the hour of death Wilson's last vision 
will be that of Mexico in ruins through his guilt, a desert and a 
graveyard; he may close his eyes, he may try to brush aside with 
his trembling hand the horrible picture; nevertheless he will see 
the ruins of smoking towns, temples profaned and starving cities! 
He will see pass the long procession of the murdered dead, he will 
hear the wails of widows and suffering orphans, of violated nuns 
and virgins, he will hear the sobbing cries of a whole nation suf- 
fering in a Yankee holocaust.' 

•■(J^e^many leaves no ground uncovered. All visitors to Spain 
of Allied citizenship are watched from the moment they arrive. 
They are under the eye of a chain of agents who are in close and 
continuous communication. Many of these agents ride on the 
trains, sharing compartments with neutrals or enemy aliens, pil- 
fering packages and opening baggage whenever possible. I speak 
from personal experience, because I was under scrutiny from the 
time I crossed the frontier until I left. On two occasions one of 
my bags was opened. Fortunately all my papers were elsewhere. 

"Every hotel of any consequence in the larger cities has in its 
employ at least one member of the German espionage organiza- 
tion. Sometimes he masquerades as a guide attached to the hotel 
staff, who is employed by the guests. In this way he finds out 
who they are and what they are doing. In the majority of cases, 
however, he is a porter or a waiter. As porter he has access to 
the baggage. * * * 

"What we need most in Spain today are live and sophisticated 
propagandists in the shape of energetic Americans who can speak 
Spanish and who can convince the Spaniard through the quality 
of their goods and the efficiency of their selling methods that 
his business bread in the future should be buttered with the 
Uncle Sam article instead of the Kaiser's brand. Like nearly 
everything else in this world it gets down to salesmanship." 

The New York Herald of July 7, 1918, contained an interesting 
account of other forms of German propaganda from Spain : 

"Ever since the beginning of the war and especially since the 
United States entered the conflict the German propagandamills have 
been working overtime in Spain and have fairly deluged that 
country with literature, picture post cards, picture pamphlets and 
posters as well as inspired newspaper articles designed to excite 
anti-Ally feeling and to arouse a tremendous respect and fear of 
Germany among the Spanish people. 



Among Neutral Nations 33 

"No part of the population is overlooked in these appeals. Even 
the children have their share, and a considerable one at that, in the 
far reaching designs of the German propagandists. 

"Ostensibly for the amusement of children, little picture books 
by the hundreds are issued by German publishers in Spain. The sub- 
jects of these books are all connected with the war. The pamph- 
lets are made up of a series of gaudily colored cartoons such as 
would appeal to children because of their bright colors and the 
grotesque and exaggerated figures in the compositions. 

"Naturally what a child looks at and likes the parent examines, 
and the parent then discovers that the bright colored little book is 
not a child's volume at all. Instead it is an anti-Ally document 
filled from cover to cover with scurrilous and often indecent 
cartoons which set forth the sins of the Allies in the past and 
present the different members of the allied group as infinitely 
more grasping and imperialistic than the sainted Germany. 
■ "One series of such little books, called 'Kings Without Crowns,' 
shows the monarchs of the world who have been deprived of their 
power either temporarily or for all time by the march of events. 
John Bull is shown holding a pistol at Constantine's head with 
France assisting. In this volume the noble and disinterested 
Constantine is pictured as refusing the gold of the piglike John 
Bull. Later Constantine is seen leaving his kingdom, while the 
overbearing John Bull bullies him off the scene, the crown of 
Constantine under his arm. 

"On the cover of the Belgium book King Albert is pictured 
wearing tights and a military hat and bearing a lantern like Diog- 
enes in his search for an honest man. On one page of this volume 
the innocent German soldiers are shown advancing into Belgium 
on their entirely peaceful mission, in which they are interrupted 
by wicked Belgian snipers. On the opposite page, to show that 
Germany has always been the misunderstood victim of the coun- 
tries she has invaded, the Russian Cossacks are pictured riding 
down the German population. On the last page, in order to drive 
home to the Spanish people the lesson that although Germany 
is always good, well intentioned and long suffering, she insists 
on her rights in the end, a picture is shown of a beautiful and 
healthy German soldier kicking King Albert out of Belgium while 
his crown falls off his head. 

"This last picture is by way of a gentle hint to Spain on what 
may happen to any country which is too fussy about German in- 
vasion. 

"In the Serbian book John Bull is shown lurking behind a curtain 
with Peter of Serbia during the commission of the crime of Sarajevo. 
Just to throw a little bouquet at an ally, the German cartoonist 
has depicted a beautiful gold and white Austrian soldier pulling 
King Peter by the ear and wielding a very long whip in the 
next picture. 

"Nicholas of Montenegro having dared to defy the glorious Teu- 
tonic armies next comes under the heel of their boot and John Bull 
is shown yelling 'Murder!' and 'Fire!' in the picture when Nich- 
olas waves the peace flag at the Teutonic powers. In the last 
picture Nicholas is led away in chains, with Great Britain and 
France as his captors. 

"Ferdinand of Roumaniahaving chosen to clean John Bull's boots 
next feels the wrath of the all powerful German, and later is 
seen leaving his kingdom as a vagabond while the ailies sneer at 
him from the side lines. 



34 Propaganda 

"In the last book of kings John Bull is shown digging the 
Tsar's grave, and in the last picture the Tsar, in patched gar- 
ments, is leaving the scene while England and France look on 
smiling. 

"These little volumes and many of a like kind are meant to ap- 
peal to people who do not know how to read or do not care to do so 
and who can assimilate ideas much more readily from pictures. 

"Another class of propagandist literature meant for persons who 
are fond of reading but not particularly discriminating is in the 
form of novelettes. These are, in fact, stories having plots, love 
interest, adventure interest, plenty of action and sentimental or 
exciting dialogue like ordinary stories, but underlying the ro- 
mance or adventure there is the propaganda. The hero must 
usually be a Teuton and the heroine Spanish or the hero Span- 
ish and the heroine German. Necessarily the villainous char- 
acters of the piece are members of one of the allied nations, and 
the story as a whole is based on a plot which displays the cu- 
pidity, cruelty, ignorance and generally ignoble qualities of the 
British, French, Italians or Americans. 

"Uncle Sam's imperialism as shown in Puerto Rico and the Phil- 
ippines and in the operation of the Monroe Doctrine is much dwelt 
upon and the Allies are pictured in blackface standing in a pool of 
the mud of conquest as an arraignment of their imperialistic 
tendencies. 

"An example of the articles inspired by the German propa- 
gandists published in some of the Spanish newspapers bitterly 
derides the help furnished to the Allies by the United States: 

" 'France awaits the help of the Yankees with her eyes on the 
Atlantic Ocean from where the modern argonauts are coming, the 
warriors that will start a new phase in the great human tragedy 
and will decide the future of humanity. 

" 'They come with the feelings of the new Redeemer, disposed 
to fight for justice's sake, and for the rights of the oppressed na- 
tives; they come to redeem the unredeemed cities, to put an end 
to the hegemony of the seas that only one country unjustly exer- 
cises, and to transform, with one blow, the map of the world. 

" 'The hand that moves the small pieces of the international 
chess game is already without pulse and tremulous and abandons 
to their own resources the people that she drew toward the heca- 
tomb to serve her avarice, while she, even yet in her last agonj', 
wants to sacrifice another nation; subjugated by her ambitions, 
giving her liberty in compensation for her generous blood — oh, 
the defender of the weak! 

" 'It seems her star moves to eclipse; the mists that surround 
her become thicker, hiding her light; perhaps some design of 
God is going to be fulfilled, of God whose divine justice wishes to 
overthrow the haughtiness of the most powerful nation in the 
world. The Iberian lion, waking from its lethargy, rises up to 
be able to watch the fall of that nation's arrogance and to listen 
to the songs of the redemption of mankind. 

" 'Late they arrive, these legions of rescuers from over the 
sea. It seems that when they arrive in Europe they will take the 
form of flocks of vultures allured by the smell of dead flesh, who 
come to scratch in foreign lands, perhaps thinking to get soma 
small piece with which to satisfy their insatiable covetousness 
under the hypocrite mask of humanitarianism — completely false. 

" 'Come they will, but late, when their only mission will be 
to sit at the table where the banquet of coming peace is held to 
exact the presidency of honor; then they will like to be the first.' 



Among Weidral Nations 35 

"The hand of the Teuton also is discoverable in the following 
comment on American conditions published in a Spanish journal: 

" 'The telegram (referring to alleged "Yankee propaganda") 
says that the number of men being instructed in camps, already- 
prepared to be sent into France, reaches 1,600,000, and that this 
will be doubled within the year. 

" 'It is opportune to know that since the month of September 
only 640,000 men have received instruction to be sent to France. 
The World of January 11 stated that 480,000 men were in the 
camps. The rest is probably fictitious. 

" 'To send an army of 1,500,000 men the Americans lack not 
alone the ships to transport them but food to maintain them 
In Europe. Under these circumstances, and in view of the 
scarcity of food in England and France, these two nations pre- 
ferred, given the impossibility of America's sending both troops" 
and food, to have food only.' " 



From Spain the Germans have conducted an elaborate campaign 
for all of Spanish-America. They have been aided by the large 
numbers of Germans who have settled in the countries of Spanish 
affiliation, but have retained their devotion to the Vaterland. With 
these missionaries, the central bureaus have kept in close touch 
by wireless and by smuggled mail and freight. They have been 
particularly effective in Mexico for many reasons. 

MEXICO. 

The tension between Mexican interests and those of the United 
States was extreme long before this war. Since our troops went 
into Mexico under General Pershing, the situation has been very 
delicate. Germany has left no stone unturned to provoke an actual 
war. The inevitable disaster to Mexico would cause Germany no 
regret, because it would divert American attention, troops, supplies 
and treasure to a side-issue and immensely weaken our whole- 
hearted support of our Allies. 

In San Antonio, Texas, alone seven carloads of German propa- 
ganda destined for Mexico were held up and burned between Febru- 
ary and June. It consisted mainly of newspapers, magazines and 
books published in Spanish and German and shipped to San An- 
tonio from Spain, Cuba and Argentina. 

Germany, as we know through the exposure of the Zimmerman 
note, cheerfully promised to Mexico, Texas, California and other 
American States as the reward of cooperation. She could well 
afford to promise such wages. She did not bring about her dream 
of an alliance between Mexico and Japan against the United States, 



36 Propaganda 

though her efforts have been untiring. She has been amply- 
rewarded for the great sums of money expended on propaganda. 
She has kept Mexico from joining the Allies. 

An article in the ^Vorld's Work for June, 1918, describes many 
phases of the German activity, which extends even to the drilling 
of Boy Scouts in the "goose step." 

German reservists are doing what they can in Mexico. Wireless 
communication with Germany through Spain has been one of their 
ambitions. To establish U-boat bases or bases for commerce raiders 
on the Mexican coasts is another of the German plans. 

Germany has many newspapers there published in the German 
language, and many subsidized papers published in Spanish. Only 
one newspaper was openly pro-Ally, and that was El Universal, 
published by Mr. Felix Pallavicini. His activities aroused so much 
opposition and so many threats were made against his life that in 
May, 1918, he was compelled by threats of assassination to sell his 
paper and move to the United States. 

On May 7, two American newspaper men, Eobert Murray, 
a representative of the Committee on Public Information, and W. E. 
Wiegand, were arrested in Mexico for "pernicious propaganda." 
They were in danger of being shot, but were ordered deported. This 
sentence, however, was suspended, and in June a large delegation 
of Mexican editors was invited to come over the border and see 
what the United States is doing and hear what our motives and 
intentions toward them actually are. 

They were received by President Wilson, who made them an 
address which was published in Mexico before its issue here was 
permitted. The President expressed his regret for injustices done 
to Mexico in the past, revealed his understanding of their distrust 
of the Monroe Doctrine and advocated a Pan-American agreement 
which would amount to a guarantee of protection against the 
possibility of aggression by the United States, as well as European 
powers. 

He emphasized the purity of our motives and our innocence 
of any desire for conquest or profit from this war, and the Mexican 
editors seemed to be greatly impressed, as were our Allies. The 
London Daily News declared that in this memorable address Presi- 
dent Wilson "revealed himself as the architect of the world's 
future." The London Times, comparing the speech with the recent 
statement of the German vice chancellor, says : 



Among Neutral Nations 37 

"No contrast could be stronger. The President talks of liberty, 
justice and law. The vice chancellor looks forward to a world m 
which the unified armies of Germany and Austria-Hungary will 
still impose their orders on a submissive Europe." 

It is this fundamental difference in ambitions that dictates 
the propaganda of the Germans. Driven with a lust for domination 
and commercial supremacy, they betray all the traits both of 
conscienceless tyrants and of crooked tradesmen. Slander, murder 
and thieving are mere details of the business program. 

The President in his address quoted a perfect example of 
German falsehood in handling the partial success of their June 
U-boat raid on the American coasts: 

"It distresses me to learn that certain influences which I 
assume to be German in their origin, are trying to make a wrong 
impression throughout Mexico as to the purposes of the United 
States, and not only a wrong impression, but to give an abso- 
lutely untrue account of things that happen. You know the dis- 
tressing things that have been happening just off our coasts. You 
know of the vessels that have been sunk. I yesterday received a 
quotation from a paper in Guadalajara which stated that thirteen 
of our battleships had been sunk off the capes of the Chesapeake. 
You see how dreadful it is to have people so radically misin- 
formed. 

"It was added that our Navy Department was withholding 
the truth with regard to these sinkings. I have no doubt that the 
publisher of the paper published that in perfect innocence with- 
out intending to convey wrong impressions, but it is evident that 
allegations of that sort proceed from those who wish to make 
trouble between Mexico and the United States." 

The German cause has succeeded so well in Mexico, not only 
because of the recent removal to that country of great numbers 
of Germans, but also because, long before the war, Germany had 
been entrenching her spies and propagandists there. 

Information of one especially strong organization has recently 
come to light in the following account: A report of the "Society 
of German Subjects in Mexico," dated July, 1916, shows that the 
purpose of the society was to "render permanent the interests of 
Germanism in economic and political spheres." Local gyoups 
under the direction of the Central Council of the Society were 
formed through the agency of the various imperial German con- 
sulates throughout Mexico to engage in publicity work, destined 
to continue even after the close of the war. The daily news service 
of the German-American Chamber of Commerce in New York was 
controlled by the society, which sent war telegrams thus received 
to all daily newspapers. A bi-weekly newspaper was established 



38 Propaganda 

as the organ of tHe society and thousands of pamphlets, etc., were 
distributed free of charge, the costs being borne by the German 
firms in Mexico and by a number of the members of the German 
colony. The American colony was a particular object of atten- 
tion, being flooded with free publications of German propaganda. 
The result, in 1916, as estimated in this report of the society, was 
that the Mexican Government and the majority of the better classes 
were completely won over to the German side, whereas the lower 
classes, laborers and workmen, had sympathized with Germany from 
the beginning. As for those of German descent, those who were 
not already devoted to the cause of the Fatherland recalled their 
forgotten Germanism as soon as they began to expect the success 
of the German cause. 

An American banker just from Mexico City described the situa- 
tion in the New York Tribune of June 22, 1918: 

"A campaign to inflame Mexicans against the United States is 
being carried on openly by German agents. German financial in- 
terests are rapidly absorbing important Mexican industries. 

"There are about 5,000 Germans in Mexico City alone. They 
have honeycombed the country with their spy system, and have 
adopted both open and secret measures to control public feeling. 
Four newspapers in the city are pro-German in sentiment and 
openly hostile to the United States. 

"An example of German activity is shown in their organized 
theatre claques. When moving pictures of American troops are 
thrown on the screen, Germans in the audience start jeering and 
hissing, and the impressionable Mexicans join in. Movies of 
Prussian troops are always greeted with applause. 

"Americans and Germans are usually formally polite when 
they meet. But a party of drunken Germans tried to invade the 
American Club recently, and a fight was started, in which several 
of the enemy were sent to the hospital. There are few fugitive 
slackers from the United States in evidence in Mexico City. 
Those who do appear find it difl[icult to obtain work from any one 
except the Germans." 

Among the visiting Mexican editors was Mr. Leo D. AValker, 
manager and editor of El Progresso, who gave the following ac- 
count of the press propaganda in the ISTew York Times of June 
16, 1918: 

"Monterey has one pro-German newspaper, El Dia. whose man- 
ager is hardly out of this teens. This newspaper. El Dia, has a 
circulation of from 500 to 600 daily. El Dia was formally pro- 
ally in its sympathies; in fact, it vilified the Germans bitterly. 
But one day it changed its tactics. While the pro-ally papers in 
Monterey — there are three others — find it difficult to buy news 
print paper at 6 and 7 cents a pound, El Dia has a warehouse full 
of news print paper. 



Among iVeutral Nations 39 

"It receives a telegraph service, as far as can be learned, from 
a place in Mexico opposite Laredo. My own paper takes the 
Associated Press service, and, because El Dia seems to appear 
with the news generally one day late, it might seem that they 
were taking it from us. But that is not the case. To illustrate: 
In the recent German drive the Germans captured one of their 
objectives and took about 2,000 prisoners. El Dia was not late 
with this story, but published it in the same issue as it appeared 
in El Progresso. The only difference, and it was a great differ- 
ence, was that El Dia said that 200,000 prisoners were taken, and 
played the story up in a way that only a pro-German paper would 
handle a German drive. 

"Before El Dia adopted the pro-German policy the young 
editor found it hard to make both ends meet. Today we learn 
that his bills are paid, and he is given a handsome salary besides. 
In fact, he now wears a diamond ring and is arranging to buy an 
automobile. 

"It would be easy to have a central source for news opposite 
Laredo, the object of which is to supply the pro-German news- 
papers in Mexico with garbled information. The news could be 
sent over by telephone from Laredo to Mexico and then relayed 
on to various cities where the pro-German papers are published. 

" 'You know President Wilson told us that the pro-Germans in 
Mexico spread the report that eleven warships were sunk by the 
German U-boats at the entrance to New York harbor. That is the 
sort of false information that the pro-Germans attempt to put 
over all the time. Apparently the pro-German newspapers put in 
a large supply of news print paper before the embargo was 
applied. As that paper is used up it is likely that the propaganda 
will die down.' 

"Another member of the party told of how when the journalists 
left Mexico, the pro-German press published lengthy articles on 'the 
traitor journalists.' Since then the Mexican newspaper men have 
been regaling themselves by publishing in every city that they 
stop a newspaper which they call The Traitor Journalists. How- 
ever, they were too busy in New York to get out an issue. 

"Another pro-German report spread broadcast recently was 
that all the crops in the United States were a failure this season, 
and that this country was unable to supply any food to the Allies. 
When the statement of Secretary Baker that there were 500,000 
American troops in France was published in Mexico the pro-Ger- 
man newspapers said there were only 200,000, and most of these 
were noncombatant troops. The part being played by the United 
States is always belittled in the pro-German press in Mexico, the 
editors said, and the false news has a cast that gives it the ap- 
pearance of having been supplied to the various pro-German pub- 
lication from a central source. 

"It was the opinion of the editors that the trip they were 
making would aid in the better dissemination of the facts as to 
the preparations for and the accomplishments thus far by this 
country in the war. 

"When we return to Mexico, after viewing your great Hog 
Island shipyard, your munition factories at Bethlehem, and your 
other great industrial enterprises engaged in war work, we will 
be able to tell the people of our country of what we saw, and not 
what we were told. When the pro-Germans spread a report such 
as the one that all the crops in your country were a failure we 
will be in a position to say that this is a lie, and tell what we 
have seen. Reports of this nature previously have been contra- 



40 Propaganda 

dieted, and their falsity pointed out in the pro-Ally press, but 
the German propaganda generally attempted to discount the 
refutations. Now we shall be able to write authoritatively of the 
things we have seen with our own eyes. 

"In a further attempt to cement the bonds of friendship be- 
tween Mexico and the United States, it is believed that arrange- 
ments will soon be made to have a group of representative 
Mexican business men visit this country and make a tour similar 
to that of the editors." 

SPAN"ISH-AMERICA. 

Throughout Spanish-America war is being waged against the 
United States and the Allies by Germans and by natives whom 
they employ. A Federal officer of the United States on May 5, 
1918, made a statement of which the following is a part: 

"South America at this moment is swamped with a pamphlet 
entitled El Vavipiro del Continente, which is perhaps the most 
vicious attack on a nation every published, and the nation in this 
instance is the United States. We are getting reports on this 
pamphlet from everywhere in South America, and that much 
harm has been done must be admitted. 

"Some months ago there was sent to South America for cir- 
culation a little officially prepared document entitled 'Why 
America Went to War.' Instead of making friends for us the 
book lost them, and an investigation was ordered. This investi- 
gation led to the discovery that the Germans had got hold of the 
genuine documents, after which they proceeded to substitute an 
edition of their own. The spurious edition was the same as the 
. American, with the exception that the Germans inserted a pre- 
face. 

"The preface was cleverly written, and to the ordinary person 
read as if it had been prepared by our Government. But the state- 
ments in the preface did not bear out the facts in the rest of the 
book, and so instead of believing what we said, thousands of 
people who read the book came to the conclusion that we were 
lying. Proper steps are now being taken to counteract this work 
of the enemy propaganda. 

"In the South American countries the Germans have bought 
up numerous newspapers, which they employ to spread their 
propaganda, but this is a well known fact and so I won't elaborate 
on it. I will, however, make a reference to Mexico where the 
German newspaper propaganda has been and is still more pow- 
erful than in any nation in the world, with the possible exception 
of Spain. These papers print the most scandalous stories about 
public men in America and in some instances even against the 
women relatives of these men. President Wilson and Lloyd 
George are the favorite targets of these scurrilous and lying 
attacks. 

"With the aid of these newspapers they get to the business 
man. For instance, a merchant is pro-Ally in his sentiments. The 
leading paper in his town is German-owned, but he does not know 
it. The fact that he is not in sympathy with Germany is 
brought to the attention of the secret German agent in charge 
of propaganda in his city or town. An excuse is found to 
exclude the merchant's advertisement, and at the same time to 



Among Neutral Nations 41 

boost the business of his pro-German opponent. The result is 
that he is ruined, or else gets back into the good graces of the 
paper by turning pro-German. 

"Nothing but expert liars are used by the Germans in spread- 
ing their false information. These liars are trained in falsehood 
from their youth, and they are the men who, when other forms 
of propaganda fail to bring results, resort to scandal of the most 
vicious kind in order to attain their objects. Mexico and Spain 
are full of these German liars." 

A similar organization is discovered at work in Chile as shown 
in an intercepted letter: 

"The Comision Central of pro-German propaganda in San- 
tiago, Chile, writes March 1, 1918, to — ■ , San Jose. 

Costa Rica. In answer to his letter requesting sample copies of 
press of Chile tells him to consult exchanges which La Informa- 
cion receives. Encloses printed copy of a protest which the 
Comision Central sent February 26, 1918, objecting to caricature 
of the Kaiser appearing in one of the Chilean papers." 

At Montevideo also the Germans are busy, as is seen by the 
following report: 

" 'Centre Germana,' a German club organized August, 1915, in 
Montevideo, Uruguay, by employees of Standt & Co. and Knopp 
& Co. and other German sympathizers, membership at one time 
about 500, mostly Uruguayans and Spaniards. Published a small 
paper and bulletins which the government has stopped. All daily 
papers in Montevideo now pro-Ally, one weekly pro-German. 
Spanish review, Oheria, unimportant. Government and people 
of Montevideo pro-ally, country not. Commander of government 
cruiser Uruguay is German Capt. Franz Ruete, former officer in 
German navy. Banco Italiano under suspicion. 

"In Colombia the following story was started and published 
in all the papers with the double object of creating Colombian 
and Japanese bitterness toward the United States. A Japanese 
ship convoying two frigates entered the Panama canal, but did 
not hoist the American colors. It was stopped and the reason 
demanded. The captain answered that he saw no reason for 
flying the United States flag in Colombian waters. He there- 
upon flew the flag of Colombia, and when United States officers 
came out to tear it down, he spread the flag of Japan over the 
gangway and dared them to cross it. The cowardly Americans 
retreated and the ship went on its triumphal way. The Japanese 
captain stated afterward that he would have blown up the canal 
if he had been molested. 

"This fairy story was spread far and wide, until the cen- 
sorship came upon a letter congratulating the author of the 
romance on the success of his invention. He was arrested. 
Another successful story was that the United States has only 
25,000 men in France, and that they are mutinous from starva- 
tion owing to our inability to get supplies across to them." 

Great sums have been spent in a vain endeavor to win Cuba 
over, according to this statement in the newspapers of June 14, 
1918: 

(3) 



42 Propaganda 

"More than $200,000,000 has been spent for propaganda work 
in Cuba by Germany since the entrance of this country into the 
war, was the statement made today by a retired United States 
Army captain, who arrived here on an American vessel from 
South America. 

"This captain makes his home in Havana, where he has busi- 
ness interests, and says he and other prominent business men 
of that city have several times narrowly escaped attempts on 
their lives because of their activities in trying to thwart the Ger- 
man propagandists. 

" 'All of the German propaganda in Cuba,' he said, 'is in the 
hands of one man, whom I consider more dangerous than two 
German armies on the French front. Operating through the 
Spanish banks, this man has negotiated for the controlling in- 
terest in piers, shipping and fishing interests, and recently has 
acquired important factories, including chocolate and piano 
plants. 

" 'He employs one man at $5,000 a year, whose sole interest 
is to try to induce the Cuban government to make certain changes 
in the ' regulation of the tariff which will be for the benefit 
of Germany after the war. 

" 'This German propaganda work is being carried on, not 
only in Cuba, but also in Mexico and Central America. More 
than 400 German agents have been sent to Mexico from Cuba 
for propaganda purposes. When the Mexican gunboat Progreso 
left Cuba recently it had as passengers three men known by the 
authorities to be German agents.' " 

According to information received by the Military Intelligence 
Branch, orders were issued in June, 1918, to intensify the propa- 
ganda in favor of the Central Powers by means of the press in 
Aigentina and Chile. All papers possible were to be bribed with 
a view to' preparing a favorable atmosphere for Germany, and 
avoiding the loss of the only two commercial fields left in South 
America— Chile and Argentina. 

La Union, a German propaganda newspaper in Argentina, often 
publishes Berlin official communiques, which arrive nine hours 
later over a British cable from London. 

The cables are obtained from Curacao, Dutch West Indies, which 
is able to keep up direct communicaton with the Nauen station. 
Messages are transmitted from Curacao to a receiving station in 
Chile, whence they are sent to Buenos Aires by the local wires. 

The source of La Union's telegraphic service is a well organized 
and evidently enormously subsidized office of German propa- 
ganda, operating under the guise of a dummy news agency, "Prensa 
Asociada" (Spanish translation of "Associated Press"), which name 
was purposely used to confuse it with the "Associated Press," with 
which it has no connection. 

The "Prensa Asociada" sends out its letters reading "Sucursal, 
Buenos Aires;" receives a bona fide telegraphic service which has 



Among Neutral Nations 43 

been handed over to La Union and the other German papers here^ 
and was discovered as a result of offering telegraphic service at 
a ridiculously low price to the local and provincial newspapers, 
and finally offering it free to the Buenos Aires papers. 

The big dailies in Buenos Aires have mistakenly used the words 
"The Associated Press" in crediting news dispatches, yet the Ger- 
man office does not claim to be a branch of the New York Asso- 
ciated Press, though it does claim to have a branch office in New 
York. 

' Outside of Buenos Aires, the only branches of "Prensa Asociada" 
which have been found are at Madrid and at Santiago de Chile, 
which from all appearances is filing wireless news received some- 
where on the west coast or in Central America. 

"disruption offensive"" against japan. 

A cable from the London Times of May 18 makes the follow- 
ing statement concerning German tamperings with Japan: 

"London, May 17. — Baron Chinda, the Japanese Ambassador 
to Great Britain, speaking this afternoon at a luncheon of the 
foreign press association, said that the warning by Lord Cur- 
zon, who had spoken previously against enemy propaganda, re- 
minded him keenly of a 'disruption offensive.' According to the 
last report of the foreign office, Berlin was said to have issued a 
pamphlet of a very cheap edition entitled 'The "World's Future 
War,' in which Japan was depicted in lurid colors as fighting 
against England. That was one means of their propaganda, said 
Baron Chinda. Another thing he heard was that according to a 
late report some members of the press in Berlin were taking up 
discussing the question of future alliances between Germany 
and Japan. 

■' 'You can see through all these machinations,' said the 
Ambassador. "They are meant, of course, to alienate Japan's feel- 
ing from her ally and sow seeds of mistrust in the minds of the 
other allies. I do not deem it necessary for me to refute these 
allegations, because they are so monstrous, so preposterous, that 
they carry with themselves their own refutation, but I want to 
state that whatever other national faults or shortcomings may 
be laid at the door of Japan, assuredly disloyalty to the plighted 
word is not one that we have. "We have shown that already by 
our deeds and you can remember the reason why we went into 
this war. 

" 'Japan was one of the earliest nations who made common 
cause with you. "What was this cause? The object for which 
Japan went to war and the object for which Great Britain 
declared war on Germany are almost the same. In the highest 
sense of honor we sought to live up to our words with England. 
Your case was to maintain your guarantee of the neutrality of 
Belgium and in our case it was to live up to the terms of the 
Anglo-Japanese alliance.' " 



44 Propaganda 

Efforts to arouse jealousy and even war between Japan and the 
United States have been incessant. Japan has been represented 
as in actual alliance with Mexico against us. Japanese zealots 
against the United States and Americans fanatic against Japan 
have played Germany's game, fortunately without success and yet 
always with a certain evil influence. 

While one set of propagandists tries to prove Germany's affec- 
tion for Japan and her unity of interest, others denounce the 
Japanese as a yellow peril. When the Japanese were taking steps 
to protect the supplies heaped up at Vladivostok the Germans 
spent one million marks in propaganda to stir up Russian suspicion 
against them. 

CHINA AND INDIA. 

At the same time the Japanese rapprochement with China has 
furnished the ubiquitous propagandists with another field. Their 
activity was thus described in the. newspapers of May 33, 1918 : 

"A special cable dispatch to the Nichi Bei of San Francisco 
from its correspondent in Tokio dealing with Teuton intrigues 
among Chinese politicians, says that the agitation among the 
Chinese politicians and students in the Japanese capital proves 
the supposition that these intrigues were under effective control 
to have been another expensive illusion. 

"A body of extreme radicals among the Chinese students left 
Tokio for China with the definite idea of arousing a certain politi- 
cal element in China to fight everything Japanese there and gener- 
ally bring about a hostile sentiment in China against Japan. Amer- 
ican readers, says the correspondent, should bear in mind that these 
so-called Chinese students are not mere college boys. An over- 
whelming majority of them are astute and thoroughly experi- 
enced politicians, ever alert and awaiting for a chance of political 
opportunity, and all this excitement among them was the direct 
result of the clever manipulation of the Chinese press and poli- 
ticians by German-paid agents. Excuse was found in the Chinese 
and Japanese treaty providing for joint action in Manchuria 
and Siberia against German penetration of the Far East. 

"The agitation among the Chinese students in Tokio assumed 
serious proportions. The Chinese Minister there called some 
of the leaders of the students to him and explained to them the 
real nature of the treaty. He showed how they had been mis- 
led by erroneous reports in the Chinese press and appealed to 
their sense of justice and patriotism to cease the agitation. To 
make the matter still more effective, the Minister induced 
Baron Goto, Foreign Minister of Japan, to grant an interview 
to their leaders and to give them an official explanation. Baron 
Goto received the students readily, according to the Tokio 
cable, and said to them: 

" 'The reports in certain Chinese newspapers are entirely 
wrong. The military treaty between China and Japan is a 
defensive instrument, pure and simple. It provides for a joint 
action of China and Japan to defend the peace of the Far East. 



Among Neutral Nations 45 

Judging from the unstable conditions of affairs in Russia, the 
German influences may invade the extreme East and threaten 
its peace. Such a thing may happen, no one can be sure that it 
may not. If it should come to pass, the treaty provides for the 
joint action of Chinese and Japanese armies to protect the peace. 
There is no other significance.' 

"This explanation satisfied the students, according to the 
Tokio cable, but they requested the Foreign Minister to put it 
in the form of a brief memorandum that they might allay the 
suspicion of some 3,000 of their fellow students. This request 
was readily complied with." 

An editorial in the Pliiladelphia Ledger of June 29, 1918, thus 
sums up the danger and the opportunity in China as a result of 
German propaganda : 

"Several of the New York papers published a statement yes- 
terday in their financial sections which was in many respects 
the most important news of the day. The New York Times had 
it this way: 

" 'A new proposal that American banks unite to supply money 
urgently needed by the Chinese Government has been brought 
forward by the State Department, which has completely reversed 
the policy toward foreign loans adopted by W. J. Bryan when he 
was Secretary of State. At the request of the State Department, 
J. P. Morgan attended a conference in Washington on Wednesday, 
at which the necessities of the republic of China were explained. 
Mr. Morgan represented the New York institutions which will 
cooperate in arranging the financing if the old difficulties that 
blocked previous negotiations can be cleared away.' 

"This plan, if carried through, would be the beginning of a 
new sane and far-seeing Allied policy for the saving of China 
from the Germans. It is easy for glib ignorance to indulge in 
cheap cynicism about 'dollar diplomacy'; but a generous Allied 
proposition — and none other should be considered — for the financ- 
ing of distracted and almost derelict China at this crisis would 
be an intelligent modern movement for the defeat of Germany in 
one of the most important 'war areas' of propaganda and opinion 
where she has long been and now is most active — and hopeful. 
That it has to do with 'dollars' is beside the question. So have 
munitions and shipbuilding and Liberty Loans and Red Cross 
funds. It is, seen rightly, an act of war — a body blow on a vital 
point at Prussian imperialism. 

"China is already our active ally. She is already a republic. 
These two statements possess about the same market value. They 
are happy signs of the future rather than comprehensive defini- 
tions of the present. It would be interesting to know how many 
millions there are in China who have heard of neither fact. It 
would probably be the naked truth to say that the Allies will 
have to fight for China before China will do very much fighting 
for the Allies. By 'fight for China' we mean a number of things — 
fight for her financially by supplying the vital fiuid of capital 
without which the largest nation can neither profit by peace nor 
wage war; fight for her trust and confidence without which 
neither our peace relations nor war cooperation will make such 
progress; especially fight German propaganda in China. 

"We have some check on the German propagandist in America. 
He is still foot-loose in China. And tongue-loose. Some idea of 



46 Propaganda 

the sort of thing he does may be gathered from one of his pre- 
war tricks. He formed a news agency which proposed to supply 
a steady stream of cable news from Berlin to all the Chinese 
newspapers. The newspapers were not asked to pay any money 
for this. Oh, no! The sordid word was never mentioned. They 
were to pay in advertising allotted to German firms. Get the 
idea? Berlin would pour into the entire Chinese press a polluted 
river of Teuton-tainted news under an arrangement so attractive 
financially that no Chinese paper would be without it. Then the 
big German firms — the steamship people, the wholesale mer- 
chants, the iron men, the railway builders, everybody whose 
profits fattened the Fatherland — would fill up this free space 
in the Chinese papers with German advertising. The loss on the 
operation? That would be charged to the imperialistic prop- 
aganda fund. 

"It is silly, dangerous and most un-American in its cowardly 
blinking of facts for us to pretend that the Germans have not 
a devilish cleverness in deceiving, tricking and trapping virtually 
all eastern peoples. Because they blundered with us, not under- 
standing our limpid psychology, we laugh comfortably at their 
efforts elsewhere^augh in spite of Russia, in spite of Italy, in 
spite of Turkey. If we keep on laughing while they capture 400,- 
000,000 Chinese, we may presently laugh on the other side of 
our mouths." 

German propaganda in India has been exceedingly active^ and 
the success of her efforts to separate India from the British Empire 
would have an almost incalculable military and financial influence 
Great numbers of Hindu troops are fighting for England in Meso- 
potamia and elsewhere, and these would be cut off from their base 
and perhaps turned into enemies instead of allies. 

The United States has been notoriously a center of a great 
Hindu conspiracy. The trial of fifty conspirators in San Fran- 
cisco involved German agents, including a German consul, Franz 
Bopp. All of them were found guilty and one of the Hindus shot 
and killed another in the court room, the assassin himself being 
instantly killed by a Federal marshal. It is well proved that the 
German Embassy and the various consulates in the United States 
and elsewhere have been hotbeds of German propaganda and of 
spy work, and citizens of certain neutral nations have been im- 
plicated in the plots. The Count Luxburg of "Spurlos Versenkt" 
fame has been only one of many confederates. 

TURKEY. 

The propagandist had not neglected Turkey, of course. In 
fact the Kaiser himself had for years acted as his own propagandist 
or in homelier terms, his ovm "press agent." By personal visits, 
by protestation of respect for Mohammedanism, by the publication 



Among Neutral Nations 47 

of his own photograph in Turkish uniform and by various other 
devices he advertised Germany as Turkey's friend. 

The papers of July 13, 1918, reported the death of Karl ISTeu- 
feld in a sanitarium near Berlin and gave a brief biography of him 
that is interesting as a model of German thoroughness in propa- 
ganda : 

"When Neufeld was rescued from a Mahdist jail at Omdur- 
man in September, 1898, he was released from an imprisonment 
which had lasted eleven years, during which he suffered many 
sorts of torture. He had been a merchant at Assuan in 1887. 
From a fugitive from Soudan he got the news in Northern Kordo- 
fan that there was a large quantity of gum which merchants had 
been unable to dispose of in consequence of the rebellion. He 
got permission from the British Government to set off with a 
caravan that was to join Sheik Saleh. Saleh's followers were 
killed in a fight and Neufeld was brought to Omdurman. He was 
to have been hanged on the following morning. The Mahdi re- 
pealed the sentence and Neufeld went to prison. He spent a 
year in the 'black hole' of the prison. 

"He became fluent in Arabic and Mohammedan customs, and 
not long after his release, which occurred when General Kitch- 
ener took Omdurman, he made pilgrimages to Mecca and suc- 
cessfully passed a searching examination on the Koran, when his 
claim to being a Mohammedan was disputed. He spread the pre- 
vailing belief among the uninformed Mohammedans that Em- 
peror William was the Grand Caliph of the European Mohamme- 
dans and went to war to free them from Christian oppression." 

So complete was the domination of Turkey by Germany, no\ 
only through the providing of military instruction and equipment 
but through commercial advances, that the Turks laid the blame 
of the Armenian massacres on the German teaching. 

Ambassador Morgenthau, in his autobiography as published in 
the World's Work, gives in the June number many striking ex- 
amples of German methods and comments on their incalculable 
military importance: 

"The duel that took place between Germany and the Entente 
for Turkey's favor was a most unequal one. Germany had won 
the victory when she smuggled the Goeben and the Breslau into 
the Sea of Marmora. The English, French and Russian ambas- 
sadors well understood this, and they knew that they could not 
make Turkey an active ally of the Entente ; they probably had no 
desire to do so; however, they did hope that they could keep her 
neutral. * * * 

"Whatever may have been the attitude of Enver and Talaat, 
I think that England and France were more popular with all 
classes in Turkey than was Germany. The Sultan was opposed 
to war; the heir apparent, Youssouff Izzadin, was openly pro- 
ally; the Grand Vizier, Said Halim, favored England rather than 
Germany; Djemal, the third member of the ruling triumvirate, 
had the reputation of being a Francophile — he had recently re- 



48 Propaganda 

turned from Paris, where the reception he had received had 
greatly flattered him; a majority of the cabinet had no enthu- 
siasm for Germany; and public opinion, so far as public opinion 
existed in Turkey, regarded England, not Germany, as Turkey's 
historic friend. Wangenheim, therefore, had much opposition 
to overcome and the methods which he took to break it down 
form a classic illustration of German propaganda. Wangenheim's 
agents now filled columns with purchased attacks on England. 
The whole Turkish press rapidly passed under the control of 
Germany. "Wangenheim purchased the Ikdam, one of the largest 
Turkish newspapers, which immediately began to sing the 
praises of Germany and to abuse the Entente. The Osmanischer 
Lloyd, published in French and German, became an organ of 
the German Embassy. Although the Turkish Constitution guar- 
anteed a free press, a censorship was established in the interest 
of the Central Powers. All Turkish editors were ordered to 
write in Germany's favor and they obeyed instructions. The 
Jeune Turc, a pro-Entente newspaper, printed in French, was 
suppressed. The Turkish papers exaggerated German victories 
and completely manufactured others; they were constantly 
printing the news of Entente defeats, most of them wholly imag- 
inary. In the evening Wangenheim and Pallavicini would show 
me official telegrams giving the details of military operations, 
but when, in the morning, I would look in the newspapers I 
would find that this news had been twisted or falsified in Ger- 
many's favor. 

"A certain Baron Oppenheim traveled all over Turkey manu- 
facturing public opinion against England and France. Ostensibly 
he was an archaeologist, while in reality he opened offices every- 
where, from which issued streams of slanders against the En- 
tente. Huge maps were pasted on walls, showing all the terri- 
tory which Turkey had lost in the course of a century. Russia 
was portrayed as the nation chiefly responsible for these 'rob- 
beries' and attention was drawn to the fact that England had 
now become Russia's ally. Pictures were published showing 
the grasping powers of the Entente as rapacious animals, snatch- 
ing away at poor Turkey. Enver was advertised as the 'hero' 
who had recovered Adrianople; Germany was pictured as Tur- 
key's friend; the Kaiser suddenly became 'Hadji Wilhelm,' the 
great protector of Islam; stories were even printed that he had 
become a convert to Mohammedanism. The Turkish populace 
was informed that the Moslems of India and of Egypt were 
about to revolt and throw off their English 'tyrants.' The 
Turkish man-on-the-street was taught to say 'Gott Strafe Eng- 
land,' and all the time the motive power of this infamous cam- 
paign was German money. 

"But Germany was doing more than poisoning the Turkish 
mind; she was appropriating Turkey's military resources. The 
time had now come to transform Turkey from a passive into an 
active ally, and the closing of the Dardanelles was the first step 
in this direction. Few Americans realize, even today, what an 
overwhelming influence this act had upon future military opera- 
tions. * * * This was the narrow gate through which the sur- 
plus products of 175,000,000 people reached Europe, and nine- 
tenths of all Russian exports and imports had gone this way for 
years. By suddenly closing it, Germany destroyed Russia, 
both as an economic and a military power. By shutting off the 
exports of Russian grain she deprived Russia of the financial 
power essential to successful warfare. What was perhaps even 
more fatal, she prevented England and France from getting 



Among Neutral Nations 49 

munitions to the Russian battle front in sufficient quantity to 
stem the German onslaught. As soon as the Dardanelles was 
closed, Russia had to fall back on Archangel and Vladivostok for 
such supplies as she could get from these ports. The cause of 
the military collapse of Russia in 1915 is now well known; the 
soldiers simply had no ammunition with which to fight. In the 
last few months Germany has attempted desperately to drive a 
'wedge' between the English and French armies, an enterprise 
which, up to the present writing, has failed. When Germany, 
however, closed the Dardanelles in late September, 1914, she 
drove such a 'wedge' between Russia and her allies. 

"In the days following this bottling up of Russia, the Bos- 
phorus began to look like a harbor suddenly stricken with the 
plague. Hundreds of ships from Russia, Rumania and Bulgaria 
loaded with grain, lumber and other products, arrived, only to 
discover that they could go no further. 

"Then one by one they turned around, pointed their noses 
toward the Black Sea and lugubriously started for their home 
ports. In a few weeks the Bosphorus and adjoining waters had 
become a desolate waste. What for years had been one of the 
most animated shipping points in the world was now ruffled 
only by an occasional launch or a tiny Turkish caique. And for 
an accurate idea of what this meant, from a military standpoint, 
we need only call to mind the Russian battle front in the 
next year. There the peasants were fighting German artillery 
with their unprotected bodies, having no rifles and no heavy 
guns, while mountains of useless ammunition were piling up in 
their distant Arctic and Pacific ports, with no railroads to send 
them to the field of action." 

SCANDINAVIA AND HOLLAND. 

Sweden is a paradise for German propaganda. Norway has 
been less amenable on account of the destruction of so much 
of her sMpping by the submarines, but the country is none the less 
kept under constant pressure. Denmark is similarly crowded with 
propagandists and Holland is alternately threatened and offered 
bribes. 

The Handelshlad of May 24, 1918, announces: 

"We have learned that Germany is busily engaged in estab- 
lishing throughout the whole world a Pan-German information 
service, and that one of the measures adopted with that object in 
view has been the creation of a 'National Dutch Information 
Agency at The Hague.' " 

Germany's ability and willingness to use in other countries 
as her agents the very people whom she represses at home are 
shown in the following description of the situation in Denmark 
contributed to the Chicago Tribune of June 9, 1918, by an 
"Ex-Attache :" 

"With Denmark the case is entirely different. In the early 

stages of the war the sympathies of the people were to a great 

, extent with the Entente and directed against Prussia, which in 



50 Propaganda 

1864 had robbed her of her two richest and largest provinces, 
Schleswig and Holstein. 

"But soon matters underwent a change. Agriculture, which 
is the staple industry of Denmark, began to reap undreamed of 
profits from the sale of its produce to Germany, while the 
blockade instituted by Great Britain interfered so greatly with 
the sea trade of Denmark as to cause resentment among her 
people. 

"This sentiment was diligently fostered and fanned by the 
German Socialist agents in Denmark. For years prior to the 
war Germany was the headquarters of Socialism and the prin- 
cipal leaders of the cult were Germans. 

"Emperor William was alive to the opportunities thus offered, 
and contrived, even prior to 1914, to convert the German Socialist 
leaders into his agents in foreign countries. Though making a 
pretense of persecuting the Socialists in his own dominions, he 
directed their operations in foreign lands. 

"He did all in his power — sub-rosa, of course — to promote 
Socialism, of the Teuton brand, in each one of the countries with 
which he was supposed to be on terms of amity and friendship. 
And thus it happened that when the present war began the 
Socialists in every country leaned toward Germany, and when the 
time came supported his pacifist intrigues against their own 
governments. 

"The Danes have always been inclined to socialism — to social- 
ism of the extreme order. The people are intensely democratic. 
The government of the day includes Socialists in the cabinet and 
in the administration, while the pro-German premier. Dr. Zahle, 
is a radical of the most advanced type. 

"Financed by the German government and directed by Ger- 
man Socialist agents, benevolent societies and peasants' and 
workingmen's unions were formed all over the kingdom, one of 
the most notable being the so-called 'Workingmen's Provision of 
Combustibles,' which undertook to import coal from Germany 
or from other countries, and to sell it, without profit, to the 
laboring classes. 

"All these unions and societies, under the guise of mutual 
benefit and philanthropy, were just so many German Socialist 
organizations for the advancement of the political interests of the. 
Kaiser. 

"It was through these unions that the Danes were taught to 
believe that instead of having any reason to be grateful to Amer- 
ica for the extravagant price which they had received for their 
West Indian Islands, that they had, on the contrary, been swin- 
dled in the deal and could have had a much larger sum. 

"When the United States was compelled in self-defense to 
Inaugurate an embargo upon all exports, except those licensed by 
the War Trade Board at Washington, and the Danes felt the pinch 
of the shoe, they became quite as bitter against the United States 
as against England. In fact, Denmark today seems the most 
unfriendly of all neutrals, running neck and neck in the matter 
with Holland. 

"There is this difference, however, between the two. In the 
Netherlands the masses of the population, the bourgeoisie and the 
liberal professions hate and fear Germany and lean towards the 
Entente. It is the aristocracy, the superior officers of the army, 
and the members of the government who are pro-German. 

"In Denmark, however, we have not only the court and gov- 
ernment, but also the entire people against us, thanks to the 
clever work of the Kaiser, through his Socialist allies." 



Among Neutral Nations 51 

A Danish-American, in a letter to a Senator, has writen the 
following account of German activity among his people and makes 
an interesting suggestion as to counteraction: 

"For some time I have desired to bring to your attention a 
certain phase of propaganda originating in Germany and carried 
on in this country; also how it may be made to recoil. 

"Schleswig, taken from Denmark by Germany in 1864, was 
Danish in heart and by tradition, but has been Teutonized by all 
the methods of influence, force, persuasion, schools, churcfi, 
courts, conscription, service, trade, preferment, etc., and it has 
accomplished wonders. I have been in close touch with the work 
and results. By analyzing the German propaganda work in the 
United States you can easily judge how it is carried on in the 
Scandinavian lands, Holland, Spain and- Switzerland. The 
terrors of Belgium were partly to intimidate the small neutrals, 
not only to make them stay out, but to obey German mandates. 

"I have made myself familiar with this by reading Danish- 
American newspapers and I have been expecting something to 
happen to these same papers; but it is something that has 
been overlooked^-its virus does not appear on the surface and, in 
fact, would not be apparent unless one were thoroughly ac- 
quainted with the existing situation. To be brief, the Scandi- 
navian press, especially the Danish-American press, has wittingly 
or unwittingly been made a sewer for German propaganda, 
smoothly gotten up; but there is plenty of it. 

"The Danish-language papers of Schleswig are more rigidly 
German-censored than pure German publications. These papers 
find their way to Denmark. Danish papers copy and then are 
mailed to the United States. Here the Scandinavian language 
press swallow it horns and all, and give it to their readers. 
This consists of finely gotten up 'sob stories' from the German 
trenches, especially, always emphasizing and extolling their 
Christianity and deep religious feelings, etc. 

"The Government's attention must be called to this at once. 
One more subject I wish to call to your attention: The Allies 
' have a most potent weapon that is not, but should be, made use of 
at once. There must be nearly 50,000, perhaps more, Scandi- 
navians serving in the allied ranks, in the foreign legions of 
France, in the Australian ranks, the Canadians and thousands 
in the United States Expeditionary Forces. A properly handled 
systematic plan, wisely conducted, from those men writing to 
their kindred the right kind of letters and those letters given 
proper publicity in the towns where they were raised, would 
not only knock out the carefully planned German propaganda, 
but would so arouse the populace that instead of a benevolent 
neutrality, Germany would find practically every neutral a hos- 
tile enemy. This also refers to Holland and Switzerland. There 
are no Scandinavian volunteers serving in the German army, 
excepting a very few Junker oSicers, very few. 

"I am a Dane by birth. I know what could be done and I 
should like to see it done at once. This Government has the 
services of my two boys on the battle line in France. This 
Government can have my services in the most needed capacity 
in which I can serve in the capacity I have so briefly outlined. 
It is a large field of labor, promising rich results, and further 
Increased hostility to Germany will help stop her from being 
able to conduct her manufacturing enterprises from other lands 



52 Propaganda 

after the war is over. Have I made myself plain? Do you 
grasp the 'big game' that may be made by small but proper 
efforts?" 

SWITZERLAND. 

Switzerland is another typical stamping ground. Every imagin- 
able form of attack on the Allies is practiced there from commercial 
and financial colonization to the ultimate in propaganda. 

A discussion of the S-wdss situation by Julian Grande appeared 
in the New York Times of June 10, 1918, as follows: 

"Berne, May 17. — By the time this article appears I hope that 
the diary of Dr. Muhlon, a former Director of Krupp, will be on sale 
in Switzerland and in the hands of the translators in England. 
The importance of such a book as this and of the revelations of 
Prince Lichnowsky can scarcely be realized except by those who, 
like myself, have lived throughout the war in a neutral Eu- 
ropean country such as Switzerland and seen the profoundly 
penetrating effects of German propaganda. 

"Long before the outbreak of the war Germany had contrived 
to place in the editorial offices of some of the leading German- 
Swiss papers men who were originally German subjects, but 
who had become naturalized as Swiss. These men were, of 
course, Swiss only in name, but it is they who occupy the front 
pages even now of several of the chief German-Swiss news- 
papers. Occasionally, by way of variety or for some special pur- 
pose, there is an Austrian instead of a German. But it all comes 
to the same thing: the opinions which are daily instilled into the 
Swiss public by these men are German opinions, such as Germany 
wishes to prevail. 

"Nothing could testify more strongly to the hold which Ger- 
many has acquired upon the German-Swiss press than the fact 
that, although Prince Lichnowsky's revelations are being every- 
where read throughout Switzerland, yet not a single leading 
German-Swiss newspaper has thought it worth while to devote 
a leading article to them, scarcely even a paragraph. The 
French-Swiss press has, of course, had long articles on the sub- 
ject. 

"Nevertheless, I hear that Prince Lichnowsky's revelations, 
which were published in German by Orell Fussli of Zurich and 
in French by Atar of Geneva, quickly ran into a second edition 
and are still selling by thousands. To show how distasteful 
this Lichnowsky memorandum is to the German Government I 
may mention that when it first appeared on sale in Switzerland 
German agents bought up every copy they could find in the 
hope that it would not reach the hands of the public. Presumably 
they thought that the publisher had published only a couple of 
thousand copies and that, if they bought up these, nothing more 
would ever be heard of the obnoxious publication. The publisher, 
however, advertised the revelation in large type in the Swiss 
daily press; the public saw the advertisements, and insisted 
upon reading the revelations. The publisher, I presume, real- 
ized Germany's little plot and immediately issued a large new 
edition, and now every kiosk and every bookshop in Switzer- 
land not directly in the hands of Germans has the Lichnowsky 
revelations on sale and sells them. 



Among Neutral Nations 53 

"To show what an eye-opener these revelations have been I 
may quote a Swiss, a Bernese, although not, I admit, a slave to 
German propaganda. He said to me only two days ago that he 
had never yet been able to believe that all the guilt for the war 
really lay at Germany's door, but the Lichnowsky revelations had 
opened his eyes and made him see her machinations as he had 
never done before. 

"Dr. Muhlon's book, which will undoubtedly open still more 
eyes, is to be published, I believe, at 3 francs only. Now that I 
have read through an advance copy, I may say that it is singu- 
larly timely confirmation of Prince Lichnowsky's revelations. On 
certain points, for instance, on which Prince Lichnowsky does not 
touch or scarcely touches, Dr. Muhlon's evidence is profoundly 
interesting. For instance, he confirms Germany's having been 
very anxious to plot with the Pope. An entry in the diary dated 
September 5, 1914, says: 

" 'The present schemers are, very great sticklers for Roman 
Catholicism, although they hate it. They reflect, however, that 
there are a great number of Roman Catholics, and that they must, 
therefore, possess a great deal of power. In particular, they are 
sounding the new Pope, and are very anxious about the results, 
he being reputed to be a political Pontiff, and not a religious one 
like his predecessor. In the highest quarters in Berlin it is 
whispered that the Pope is no fool; and that although his per- 
sonal predilections go toward France, this does not prevent him 
from realizing political considerations. 

" 'The idiots in Germany really seriously believe that they 
can induce him to side with Germany against France and Bel- 
gium, and were in a great hurry to put out feelers, thinking 
"first come first served." A highly placed personage, a Protestant, 
told me with inexpressible solemnity that the Pope was now 
more important in Germany than any great power, and particu- 
larly the present Pope, whom he had known as a Cardinal. 

" 'In home politics also the leaders in Germany today attach 
a great deal of importance to the Roman Catholic Church, in 
other words, to the Centre Party, not only because the Roman 
Catholics, being so powerful, can turn the scale in big debates, 
but also because they are believed to be in favor of the annexation 
of the Roman Catholic countries in the west. As a matter of fact 
the Centre Party includes a few mischievious agitators such as 
Erzberger, who allow themselves to be made use of for carrying 
out Germany's designs upon. Belgium, because whatever may 
betide they are determined to be somebody.' 

"An interesting confirmation of the extent to which the Ger- 
mans endeavored to influence the neutral press is the following 
entry, dated September 25, 1914: 

" 'Everywhere the German Government now has its emissaries, 
whose business it is, not to convince the newspapers of neutral 
countries, but to bribe them not to write against Germany. No 
one in Germany will believe that there is a more effective method 
than bribery. The well-known Reichstag Deputy, Erzberger, 
rascal that he is, is of great assistance to our Government in 
this respect. He even writes articles himself, which are after- 
ward said to be distributed by means of Government money; and 
I remember one particular article of his which began by assert- 
ing, without even an attempt at substantiation or proof, that the 
French had intended to violate Swiss neutrality and had asked 
Switzerland to allow them to march through her territory upon 
Germany, but had been prevented from doing so because the 



54 Propaganda 

Swiss army was mobilized against France only. Any one who 
• does not believe this better go and read the article in Der Tag.' 

"The Germans, Dr. Muhlon proceeds, under date of September 
26, 1914, attempt to explain their unpopularity by alleging that 
they have not been bribing the foreign press enough — bribing, 
be it noted, not enlightening it. 

"Writing on October 5, 1914, Dr. Muhlon remarks that it was 
just then the fashion to praise the Bavarian troops up to the 
skies. He himself being a Bavarian, can testify to the fact that 
the Bavarians, perhaps less that any other Germans, know why 
they are fighting and for what. They were, however, he says, 
reputed to be the best fighters; they took off their coats so as to 
be able to hit harder, and they stuck their long pocket knives 
into everything and everyone coming in their way. 'They give 
no quarter, and therefore ought to be put to fight the British.' 

"Referring on the same date to the terrible stories in circula- 
tion about East Prussia and the fighting there against the Russians, 
Dr. Muhlon states that everyone was saying, with entire ap- 
proval, that not only were the Russians driven into the swamps, 
but tens of thousands who would have surrendered and tried to 
struggle out of the morass, were driven in again at the point of 
the bayonet, until they were drowned or suffocated. 

"An order was issued to give no quarter, 'Too many prisoners 
could not be used.' The cries of the drowning were said to have 
been heard for days and nights, and not even to have been over- 
powered by the roar of the cannon. Ninety thousand prisoners 
were said to have been taken, but far more to have been murdered 
when they were helplessly imploring for help. Dr. Muhlon says 
that he cannot personally vouch for the truth of this, but that 
everyone in Germany was repeating such stories, and no one 
uttered a word of regret or indeed did anything but express ap- 
proval." 

A further testimony not only to the activities in Switzerland 
but to German propaganda everywhere as a military power, is given 
by a recent visitor to that country, interviewed in the papers of 
June 8, 1918 : 

"A German victory would mean the end of Swiss independence 
twelve months after peace was declared, according to the opinion 
of Dr. Frank Bohn, Secretary of the Friends of German Demo- 
cracy, who returned recently from a visit abroad. Dr. Bohn 
spent several months in Switzerland. He made the prediction, he 
said, after considering that Germany was rapidly seizing the 
enormous natural resources of Switzerland. He said that if 
there are any persons in America who still depended upon the 
. people of Germany to win a victory for us, they had better dis- 
illusion themselves. He said he questioned many German demo- 
cratic exiles in Switzerland. 

" 'The efforts you hear of through the press are merely the 
carefully laid schemes of the German pacifist propaganda,' said 
Dr. Bohn. 'This propaganda takes a hundred forms. It per- 
meates every nook and corner of European life. If through some 
terrible catastrophe Germany should win, history will report that 
it was the German propaganda that was the decisive factor. 
France and her Allies cannot hold the German propaganda back 
in Italy, in the Balkans, in Russia and in neutral count.riA«. 



Among Neutral Nations 55 

" 'The story of that propaganda is one of the amazing chapters 
in the history of this generation. Germany is spending $5,000,000 
in Switzerland alone. Every one of her hundreds of agents in 
that country is now talking peace, peace, peace. Germany has 
purchased some of the largest newspapers in Switzerland. Ger- 
man press service reaches every country weekly in that country. 

" 'German propaganda can only be made to fail if we become 
permeated with the basic idea of absolute victory and the rea- 
sons why there will be victory. Anything less is surrender and 
treason, treason to the entire well being of civilization. The less 
we think of peace now the sooner we will have it in reality.' " 

The German effort to control journalism in Switzerland is thus 
described by Carl W. Ackerman in the Saturday Evening Post of 
May 25, 1918 : 

"The Swiss press is sharply divided. In the French part of 
Switzerland there are no neutral papers. All are pro-Ally as far 
as the war is concerned, though intensely pro-Swiss at all times. 
In German Switzerland many of the influential newspapers are 
owned by German capital or are subject to German influence, 
both directly and indirectly. Some are so dependent upon Ger- 
many for news and coal that room cannot be found for American 
news. After a careful study of the newspapers over a period of 
three months, it was estimated that eighty-five per cent of the 
news about America in the Swiss papers was decidedly antagon- 
istic. 

"Our failures and miscalculations have been advertised almost 
daily, with the result that many thousands of Swiss citizens do 
not consider America's participation in the war seriously. By 
April, one year after we had been at war with Germany, practic- 
ally nothing had been done to explain America's position. Most 
of the news of us has been 'made in Germany,' because the Ger- 
man agencies have been particularly liberal in spreading dissat- 
isfactory reports about the United States. The excellent reasons 
which the United States has given for not being able to ship 
grain to Switzerland immediately have not been explained in , 
the press. Nothing has been done to contradict the German 
statement that the American forces in France will invade Switz- 
erland. 

"German propaganda, however, is not limited to the Swiss 
press nor the spreading of rumors about American intentions. 
All news stands in German Switzerland are controlled by a Ger- 
man syndicate. The leading news stands in Berne, Ziirich, Basel, 
Lucerne and all the railroad stations handle only German and 
Swiss newspapers. 

"The first part of this year a correspondent of one of the leading 
Swiss newspapers returned from the United States with material 
for a series of articles on America's war preparations. The first 
article he called 'Why America Entered the War.' It had to be 
rewritten three times before the editors would accept it, because 
they feared his strong statements might antagonize the ten 
thousand German readers of the paper. Finally, when the 
article was published the German authorities sent word to the 
editor that unless a German writer was permitted to answer the 
articles the German Government would have to stop the coal 
supply to the paper. 



56 Propaganda 

"When the great offensive was launched on the Western Front 
the French Council of National Defense closed all frontiers, espe- 
cially the border stations between France and Switzerland. 
This was done' to prevent news from reaching the German agents 
in Switzerland pertaining to the movement of troops. A few 
days later the German Government closed the Swiss-German fron- 
tier and there was an immediate reaction in Switzerland. The 
press discovered that Switzerland had only sufficient coal for her 
industries and trains to run about two weeks. While Germany 
may have taken this step to prevent news from Germany reach- 
ing Switzerland during the great military crisis in March and 
April, it is probable that the German Government had another 
object in view— namely, that of impressing upon the Swiss Gov- 
ernment and people the dependence upon Germany of Swiss 
industries and railroads." 

lEELAND. 

The attempt to take advantage of the Irish desire for indepen- 
dence is a familiar example of German propaganda. The activ- 
ities of Sir Eoger Casement among Irish prisoners in Germany and 
his appearance in Ireland from a submarine added to the em- 
barrassment of Great Britain. On May 15th, two Germans were 
captured as they landed on the coast of Ireland from a submarine. 
Others are believed to have arrived. 

The efforts of England to give Home Eule to Ireland and to 
secure assistance instead of hostility from that important element 
in the British Empire have been largely thwarted through the 
efforts of German propagandists, who cheerfully offer Ireland a 
freedom that Germany has given to no one else, and have succeeded 
in persuading great numbers of Irish patriots to lend a passive 
or active aid to the enemies of Ireland's old ally, France, and her 
chief benefactor, the United States. 

In this country a certain group of irreconcilably anti-British 
Irishmen worked hand in glove with the Germans, and the case 
•of Jeremiah O'Leary and others now on trial reveals the extent to 
"which the conspiracy was carried in America. 

The military effect is evident. Instead of being able to gain 
Irom Ireland a great army of soldiers by the policy of conscription, 
io which all the Allies have submitted, it has been necessary for 
England to keep a large number of troops in Ireland as a garrison 
against open revolt. 

German propaganda has thereby gained a triple success: An 
Irishman, instead of taking his place in the trenches, withdraws an 
Englisliman from the trenches ; thus enabling a German whom that 
Englishman would have counterbalanced to combat another English 



Amotig Neutral Nations 57 

soldier. In short, he reduces the English quota by two and adds 
one to the German. 

Cables from England of June 26, 1918, state: 

"London, June 26. — Seditious propaganda, in the form of pos- 
ters, poems, pamphlets and other literature, has begun to make 
its appearance in many sections of Ireland, and the government 
learns that they are from German sources. Ireland is known 
to be in direct communication with Germany, and submarines 
have been showing themselves off the Irish coast at localities 
where destruction of ships could not be their object. 

"These are some of the revelations that are stirring Parlia- 
ment to action and which caused Premier Lloyd George to appeal 
in the house for immediate settlement of the Irish question. The 
delay is not only presenting difficulties for England, but is ham- 
pering the United States in the prosecution of the war. 

"Edward Shortt, chief secretary for Ireland, declared that 
he would prove that the German plot in Ireland was a real im- 
minent danger and not a myth. 

"Mr. Shortt quoted several posters that are conspicuously 
posted throughout Ireland, one of which reads: 

" 'Any straw and fodder taken by the German army will be 
paid for by Germany.' This is only one, he said, of many posters 
of this nature." 

From an elaborate history of this agitation in the United States, 
prepared by the Military Intelligence Branch, this synopsis may 
be quoted as a bird's-eye view of Irish propaganda in the United 
States and its connection with enemy activities. It should not be 
taken as a complete statement of all the information available. 

The following conclusions are offered as fairly deducible : 

Before the outbreak of the war in 1914 and until the beginning 
of 1915, Irish agitation in the United States had no strong financial 
backing and was rather anaemic. 

Shortly after the arrival of the German High Commission in 
September, 1914, a virulent German propaganda started under 
Dr. Dernburg and others. The potentialities of the Irish organiza- 
tions were too obvious to be overlooked and their services were 
engaged. 

During 1915, certain Irish leaders were openly associated with 
German propagandists in efforts to discredit the cause of the Allies, 
and to prevent the manufacture and shipment of munitions. These 
movements were financed with German money. 

During the early part of 1916, the efforts of both parties and 
funds supplied by Germany were devoted to causing revolution in 
Ireland. This culminated in the Easter uprising in which Irish- 
Americans took a definite part. 



58 Propaganda 

After the fiasco of the Easter uprising, some of the Irish element 
became disaffected, because of the belief, voiced by Casement, that 
the Germans were using the Irish as tools. 

The professional agitators, like O'Leary and Devoy, continued 
their activities in open connection with German agencies. A bitter 
political campaign was conducted by both parties during the presi- 
dential and Congressional elections in the summer and autumn 
of 1916. 

Since the beginning of 1917 the Irish agitation has become 
progressively more intense. The declaration of war had little 
effect on the campaign conducted by The Friends of Irish Freedom, 
The Irish Progressive League, Bull, and the Gaelic-American, 
except that it masqueraded as a purely Irish patriotic movement. 
The connection with German agents, however, clearly appears, and 
it is believed that Mme. Victorica stimulated and financed the 
campaign. 

It has been denied that the Sinn-Feiners of Ireland had direct 
relations with the German Government, and it is still denied, but 
the British Government has issued an official statement, including 
the following paragraphs : 

"For some considerable time it vvas difficult to obtain accurate 
information as to German-Sinn-Fein plans, but about April, 1918, 
it was ascertained definitely that a plan for landing arms in 
Ireland was ripe for execution, and that the Germans only 
awaited definite information from Ireland as to the time, place 
and date. 

"The British authorities were able to warn the Irish com- 
mand regarding the probable landing of an agent from Germany 
from a submarine. The agent actually landed on April 12 and 
was arrested. 

"The new rising depended largely upon the landing of muni- 
tions from submarines, and there is evidence to show that it was 
planned to follow a successful German offensive in the west and 
was to take place at a time when Great Britain presumably 
would be stripped of troops. 

"According to documents found on his person, de Valera had 
worked out in great detail the constitution of his rebel army. He 
hoped to be able to muster 500,000 trained men. There is evidence 
that German munitions actually had been shipped on submarines 
from Cuxhaven in the beginning of May, and that for some time 
German submarines have been busy off the west coast of Ireland 
on other errands than the destruction of Allied shipping. 

"It will thus be seen that the negotiations between the execu- 
tive of the Sinn-Fein organization and Germany have been virt- 
ually continuous for three and a half years. At first a section of 
Irish-Americans was the intermediary for most of the discussions, 
but since America's entrance into the war the communi- 
cation with the enemy has tended to be more direct. A second 



Among Neutral Nations 59 

rising in Ireland was planned for last year, and the scheme broke 
down only because Germany was unable to send troops. 

"This year plans for another rising in connection with the 
German offensive on the Western Front were maturing, and a 
new shipment of arms from Germany was imminent. 

"An important feature of every plan was the establishment 
of submarine bases in Ireland to menace the shipping of all na- 
tions. 

"In the circumstances no other course was open to the Gov- 
ernment if useless bloodshed was to be avoided and its duty to 
its allies fulfilled but to intern the authors and abettors of this 
criminal intrigue. 

"Mr. Lloyd George also reiterated in his speech at Edinburgh 
his assertion that the Government possess irrefutable evidence of a 
conspiracy on the part of the Sinn-Feiners, though he completely 
exonerated the Nationalist leaders of any complicity in a plot. He 
said: 

" 'All the indications in our possession point to the fact that 
the blow was timed for the moment when the German High 
Command deemed its preparations to crush the British Army in 
France had reached the culminating point. Had we shirked stern 
action without delay we should have deserved impeachment. 

" 'Let me make one point clear: The Irish Nationalist leaders 
had nothing to do with it. They were not even cognizant of it. 
Of that I am convinced from the evidence. I am, therefore, not 
in the least surprised at the doubts they expressed as to its exist- 
ence.' " 

The London Daily Mail sums up the situation as follows : 

"This, we are perfectly confident, is the state of affairs which 
American opinion will immediately pronounce intolerable, and 
which the United States Government will do its utmost to eradi- 
cate, for the Sinn-Feiners were aiming at the establishment of 
German submarine bases on the coast of Ireland, whence they 
might prey on the lives of American soldiers crossing the At- 
lantic to the battle fields of Flanders. They are aiding the enemy 
of the United States to use the most deadly weapon against the 
American Army and Navy — the weapon which, if it succeeded, 
would paralyze America's effort and strew the ocean with Amer- 
ica's dead." 

AUSTRALIA. 

Even Australia has felt the virus of German intrigue. A former 
Attorney General of Australia, Mr. W. J. Denny, contributed to 
the New York Times an account of it that shows the attitude of 
the German scientist in contrast to the scientists of other nations. 
The Teutonic professors in Germany had already dismayed the 
world by their surrender to militarism at home. The following 
letter from Mr. Denny reveals them further : 

''To the Editor of The New York Times: 

"On that fateful day of August 4, 1914, when war was declared 
between Great Britain and Germany, the Society for the Advance- 
ment of Science, one of the most eminent coteries of knowledge 



60 Propaganda 

in the world, met in Australia for the first time. We felt honored, 
and as a member of the council of the Adelaide University I was 
privileged to be present. 

"Naturally, the dread announcement overshadowed everything, 
including science. Anti-German feeling became manifest; but in 
those foolish old days we regarded our guests as merely 'victims' 
of the Kaiser's dream of world domination. 

"A venerable and kindly looking old German professor of 
worldwide fame, with many academic degrees, rose to address 
the brilliant assemblage. He was greeted with a chorus of sym- 
pathetic cheers. 'No one,' he said, 'deplores this terrible conflict 
of physical against mental and moral force more than I do.' He 
was believed. The sessions of the society removed to Melbourne, 
and the amiable professor was everywhere sympathetically re- 
ceived. He was pitied. Then rumors commenced to circulate. 
It was alleged that his private sentiments were not consistent 
with his public statements or with his role of a disinterested 
scientist. The authorities took action, and, despite strong pro- 
tests from this 'victim' of the war, searched his valise and found 
concealed in a small pocket a complete copy of the official plans 
of the naval fortifications and defenses of Melbourne! Needless 
to say, he was promptly and effectively dealt with; the plans 
never reached the Wilhelmstrasse. 

"Another case was not dissimilar. This professor also in- 
gratiated himself with his fellow-scientists, and to a friend re- 
marked: 

" 'It is so terrible to be away from Germany and my people at 
this anxious time.' 

" 'Yes, indeed,' was the friend's answer, 'your wife and family 
will feel it deeply.' 

" 'Oh, it is not that,' replied the professor, 'but to be absent 
from the Fatherland at this time of spiritual awakening is be- 
yond endurance.' 

"The friend had not then read Treitschke, Nietzsche, and the 
host of Hun philosophers, statesmen, soldiers, and poets on the 
true significance of the spiritual awakening. He had not then 
read the Kaiser's proclamation, 'I am the instrument of the Most 
High. I am His sword and I'epresentative. Death and disaster 
to those who resist my will.' This friend was soon to learn of 
German perfidy; bUt meantime the professor had made certain 
.discoveries, the sessions broke up, and he escaped! 

"But these and other lessons were not lost. An effective cam- 
paign against Hun influence was at once launched. Every Ger- 
man school was closed, every German newspaper suppressed, the 
German language was prohibited, pro-German members of all 
public and private bodies were retired, every German town name 
was altered, and all trade contracts annulled. And the Australian 
Prime Minister is now able to declare that Australia had cut out 
the last vestige of the cancer of German influence and com- 
mercialism. 

"Germany alone, of all the nations of the world, sends spies 
and emissaries to corrupt, disintegrate, and destroy free and 
peace-loving peoples. No one ever heard of American, English, 
or Australian spies — professors or otherwise — plotting against 
Germany. But German spies and German money and German 
influence permeated the earth, scheming to make the war map 
favorable for 'Der Tag.' Every grade of society was ushered 
into the service of the Wilhelmstrasse to further the Kaiser's 
interests, to spread poisonous literature, to dismember States, to 



Among Neutral Nations 61 

sow feuds, to promote uprisings, to commit outrages. 'Friendly' 
countries were to be weakened and if necessary, destroyed, to 
assist German aims in the carefully planned and inevitable 
world war. 

"America has had many portents of Hun policy. The Kaiser's 
own declarations to Mr. Gerard are on record. But General von 
Bernhardi's disclosures of how Germany would treat the United 
States are not so well known — 'Since England committed the un- 
pardonable blunder, from her point of view, of not supporting the 
Southern States in the American war of secession, a rival to Eng- 
land's worldwide empire has appeared on the other side of the 
Atlantic' In other words, Germany would not have committed 
that unpardonable blunder. She would have supported the South- 
ern States and prevented the Union, not because the former were 
right, but because a United States would have stood in the path 
of German aggression. 

"How, then, can German propaganda best be defeated? 
'Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty' is the answer. Every 
case should therefore be treated on its merits. Facts, not out- 
ward appearances, must alone decide. But vigilance must be 
guided by justice and have no bad motives. To circulate unfair 
or misleading reports, to give information through malice or 'to 
work off a grudge is as un-American as it is un-British. 

"But at all costs and at all hazards every pro-German must be 
discovered and scotched — once and forever. Till that time comes 
no nation can be free." 



CHAPTEE III. 
VAEIOUS FOEMS OF PEOPAGANDA. 

THE CONTINENTAL TIMES. 

The Germans have carried their propaganda to the extent of 
publishing not only the Gazette des Ardennes in French (see the 
previous reference to the Bonnet Rouge) but also a newspaper in 
the English language. This is printed in Berlin with branch offices 
in Hamburg, Eotterdam and Ziirich. It is called "An independent 
cosmopolitan newspaper published in the interests of truth !" It 
was subsidized by the German Foreign Office, the subsidy taking the 
form of the purchase of 50,000 copies of each issue. The "respon- 
sible editor" is an irresponsible English renegade, named Aubrey 
Stanhope. One of his chief aides has been a renegade, American- 
born writer who has become a willing tool of the Germans. His 
parents were German, but he was educated in the United States, 
and attained some distinction both as a poet and a painter. It is 
stated that the success of a play of his in Berlin convinced him of 
the superiority of the Germans to all other races. 

Under the pretense of making water-color sketches he spent 
several months in the Orkney Islands. It was discovered that 
he was really making observations for Germany, and he was put 
out of England. He established himself eventually in Switzerland 
and Germany, where he has been concerned in the publication of 
the Continental Times. 

This American poet opposed his own country bitterly during 
the prosecution of the Spanish- American war, and now he finds- 
no language too strong to express his contempt for us and his 
idolatry for Germany. He is so Germanophile that in a pamphlet 
called "A Letter from an American to an Englishman," published 
in the United States by a German (since interned), he declared the 
Germans to be such a noble race that anyone who opposes them, 
either by peace or war, commits a horrible offense against civil- 
ization. 

The Continental Times has been distributed on many occasions 
by airships among the British front lines and latterly among the 
American. The majority of the soldiers are immune to such appeal 
just as the majority of them are unharmed by the gas shells 
sent over sometimes at the rate of 20,000 a day. But the effect is 
63 



Various Forms 63 

equally military, and the end is the same : to destroy the effective- 
ness of our troops. 

Such papers as the Continental Times are supplied with material 
not only by Germans and by Americans living in voluntary exile 
abroad, but also by quotations from Americans living in America 
and opposing our cause from here. 

The speeches of certain Senators and Congressmen, editorials 
and sensational news, articles from various newspapers and maga- 
zines, criticisms of the efficiency or sincerity of our leaders, have 
been copied and widely distributed by the Continental TimeSj and 
by the German papers in Spain and Spanish America. They suffer 
nothing in the translation, and they give an impression of dissen- 
sion, despair and feebleness in the United States, picturing this 
country alternately as in the throes of financial distress and as 
trying to extend her tyranny over the entire new world. 

A favorite line of propaganda, which undoubtedly had a power- 
ful influence in keeping many South American nations from join- 
ing us in declaring war on Germany, was the statement of the 
impossibility of our either raising an army or getting it overseas. 
The Liberty Loans were declared to be complete fiascos, American 
finance a wreck, the draft a failure, and the equipment of our 
troops an utter breakdown. 

Eidiculous as are the lies that many of these papers publish, 
it is shamefully true that much of their best material is accurately 
quoted from Americans who have abused the freedom of press and 
speech and devoted their talents to opposing the success of every 
military step taken by this country. 

PEACE OFFENSIVES. 

The versatility of the propagandists is amazing. Germany has 
set her most eminent psychologists to work; her scientists, pub- 
lishers, authors, editors, playwrights, . film-producers, poets, 
preachers. 

There seems to be no trickery to which they will not stoop. 

At times it serves their purposes to picture Germany as pros- 
trate with starvation and torn to pieces with revolution. At others 
she is invincible, united, and fat. 

The German peace drives are notoriously insincere. Since they 
have been proved to be opening bombardments preparatory to the 
actual attack, they have come to be called "peace offensives." 



64 Propaganda 

The German militarists realize that when they undertake a 
push by force of arms, everything that weakens the determination ' 
of the enemy is as good as a bullet, or better. The most generous 
hints of the longing for peace are therefore put forth along with 
stories of a complete breakdown in preparation or morale, or as 
the occasion requires. The influence of these would naturally be 
to soften the hearts of their enemies, or give them a sense of false 
security. 

They endeavor, on the other hand, at times to frighten the 
soldiers into panic. They picture G-erman architecture wrecked by 
Allied airships and threaten reprisals of terrible extent. Among 
the pamphlets sent into the Allied lines recently by balloons and 
from airships, or otherwise smuggled in, there have been countless 
leaflets of appeal for peace urging the Allied soldiers to surrender 
and avoid bloodshed and the destruction of their home towns. 

The contradietoriness of these appeals does not disturb the Ger- 
mans, since they hope that what does not capture one Allied mood 
will capture another. 

An eloquent exposure of German peace offensives is made by 
Professor George D. Herron, who was accused of conducting nego- 
tiations with Germany from Switzerland. He indignantly denied 
the charge and has given his opinion of German propaganda in 
the New York Times for June 30, 1918 : 

"Germany's new peace offensive has begun. As carefully pre- 
pared, as scientifically worked out, as the military offensive it is 
meant to parallel, and employing the same mass tactics, the peace 
army is already crossing the Rhine; soon it will be swarming 
over Switzerland. Soon, as on former occasions, will its wheed- 
ling proposals, its whining voices, be echoing from Alp to Alp, 
be resounding in the streets of the Swiss cities. Especially will 
these hosts of the German good-will set up their lamentations, 
their shameless rehearsals, by the doorsteps of English and 
American citizens who now make Switzerland their home. 

"Let us prepare for the worst. All the physical horrors, the 
unimaginable savageries, the new and original sensualities, that 
are the inevitable commonplace of German military progress — 
these will have their counterpart in the spiritual horrors, in the 
mental and moral grossness, in the serpentry and charlatanry, 
of this approaching offensive for a German peace. Nor let us 
forget, furthermore, that the peace offensive may prove more 
dangerous to the Entente and to America, more perilous to the 
cause of democracy, more destructive to the moral being of hu- 
manity, than all the might of the co-ordinated German armies. 

"Each peace offensive of Germany comes with its own special 
theme. When her military triumph seemed in doubt, her emis- 
saries perpetrated in Petrograd the vile deception of 'no an- 
nexations and no indemnities.' With the threads of this satanic 
web the pacifist weavers overran the world. If the Entente and 



Various Forms 65 

America had only been caught in the web, then by the principle 
of 'no annexations and no indemnities' Germany could have re- 
tained Alsace-Lorraine and Poland, and have achieved the mon- 
strous injustice of leaving Belgium unindemnified and unrestored. 
The trick failed; the German web was dissolved in the imbecile 
grief of the pacifists. 

"The trick next tried was the scarcely concealed hypocrisy of 
Count Hertling's deliverance before the Reichstag — his crude pre- 
tense of accepting President Wilson's famous Four Principles. 
It was then that Germany's peace army so crowded Switzerland 
that there was scarcely room for enlightened or honest men to 
stand in. Some of us suffered what I fear will be a permanent 
exhaustion as a result of then trying to follow the twistings and 
turnings of the German mentality. 

"The Four Principles must be so interpreted, according to 
the peace mongers, that the question of Alsace-Lorraine be not 
touched. Untouched, also, must be the question of Poland. Nor 
must the question of Belgium's indemnities be raised in such 
way- as to put Germany in the wrong. Germany must be per- 
mitted to accept the Four Principles in shadow and reject them 
in substance. They must be so applied, when the peace congress 
should assemble, as to give Germany everything she wanted. 

"The second trick failed, as the first had failed. The peace 
army was unable to so capture and exploit the Four Principles 
as to make our President the unwilling medium of a German 
peace. 

"And we are to learn that it is his fault that peace was not 
long ago concluded, and that Germany was compelled to make 
the present offensive. If President Wilson had been a little 
more conciliatory each time he spoke; if he had only begged 
Germany a little harder to stop fighting; if he had only told her 
that she could keep Alsace-Lorraine — and all other parts of the 
world she could lay hands on; then, at one time or another, 
Gero?.ny might have made peace. But just because the American 
President has been so misinformed about Germany, just because 
he has not been patient enough in beseching and understanding 
this truthful and tender-hearted people, the sorrowing Hinden- 
burg and Archangel Ludendorff are now compelled to lead the 
weeping German army against the enemies they love and would 
so gladly save. It is upon the imperious soul of our President 
that the woeful responsibility of the present German military 
offensive rests. 

"It is a peace offensive, O stupid Englishmen and Americans — 
a peace offensive, mind you, not a military offensive, that Ger- 
many is pursuing by this unimaginable slaughter on the Somme 
and in Flanders. Has not this been explained to us, oh, so sadly, 
oh, so sweetly, by the hither-hastening heralds of the peace army? 
The new death roll of a million of men — which Germany has so 
quickly written in France — is an appeal for peace. Do you not 
understand? The far-firing gun which slew a church full of 
worshippers, including the beloved honored M. and Mme. Stroehlin 
of the Swiss Legation; the bomb that crushed the public nursery 
of toddling children, tended during the absence of their working 
mothers; these were peace measures — the only method by which 
the pitiful German could reach the hard-hearted Frenchman and 
Englishman. Is not this perfectly clear? And the bomb that 
dropped into a little Paris birthroom, where a baby that had been 
an hour born was blown to fragments, along with its mother 
and the attending sagefemme — especially should incidents like 



66 Propaganda 

this, according to Germany's interpretation of her offensive, have 
a soothing effect on American nerves and persuade our President 
to enter into relations of blood-brotherhood with the Kaiser. 

"There need be no doubt on the part of Germany that her 
present military offensive is having an effect upon American 
nerves, upon American minds, upon American wills — such an 
effect as will make the preparing peace offensive as useless as it 
is loathsome — ending forever any American thought of discussing 
peace with Germany's masters. 

"Not from America will Germany receive peace — not if Ger- 
many has all Europe in her hands; not if America must fight for 
a hundred years. Nor now, nor at any time in the future, nor in 
the shadow of any conceivable German triumph, nor while a 
single American flag widens to one of the world's breezes, will 
America or Americans make peace with the Germany that now 
is. Either the Germany that now is or America must cease to 
dwell upon this planet; for Germany is making the planet un- 
inhabitable for men who can really claim to be human. Either 
Germany must utterly cease to be what she is, or she must fight 
America until she or America come to an end; for there breathes 
no true American who does not now prefer death for himself, 
for his beloved ones, and for his country, to any life that he or 
they could possibly live in a world that had become a German 
dominion. 

"I am speaking, it is true, as a single unofficial individual; 
but I am no less voicing the increasing feeling of the American 
nation as a whole, and of the average American man." 

GERMAN PROPAGANDA IN GERMANY. 

While there has been incessant effort to convince the German 
people of the divinity of the imperial family, they have grown in- 
creasingly restless under its pretensions and insolences and under 
the exactions of famine, death and commercial confusion. 

It has been necessary, therefore, to give them sedatives and 
stimulants in the form of propaganda. As anything that keeps 
them fighting must also keep us fighting, it is interesting to 
select from the enormous mass of German propaganda against Ger- 
many a few typical examples of how America is presented to Ger- 
many over a year after our declaration of war. 

At first the German people were assured that the United States 
would be torn to pieces by the uprising of the millions of its German 
sympathizers. When this lie failed, they were told that the United 
States neither would nor could raise an army; next that having 
raiseS. one, it could neither transport it nor supply it across the 
submarine-controlled ocean. 

The sinking of the Tuscania with the loss of 200 soldiers was 
trumpeted as the proof of this prophecy. When it could no longer 
be denied that American troops were arriving, the next step was 
to minimize their numbers. Following that, it was necessary to 



Various Forms 67 

discredit their value; they were called "lightning-trained" and 
unimportant against the German soldiers trained to militarism from 
childhood. 

Simultaneously much advertisement was made of the inability 
of the United States to provide equipment or even to run its trains 
or coal its ships. The coal shortage was celebrated as proof of com- 
plete breakdown. The aircraft and shipbuilding delay as another. 
Criticisms by Americans in Congress or the press were published 
broadcast. 

The first American prisoners captured were paraded about Ger- 
many and their alleged confessions of hopeless inferiority printed to- 
gether with statements that the war was neither understood nor 
approved in America. 

The Kreuz-Zeitung, the ultra-militarist organ, published a two 
column article showing that the United States was a nation of 
plebeians made up of immigrants. 

American seamen were represented as green and ignorant and 
incapable of running the engines of the ships they confiscated. 

Financial panic ruled in the United States, according to the 
German papers, and it was necessary to curb the fears by threats of 
lynching. 

The suppression of the German language newspapers or their 
alignment with the loyal elements was described by some as a 
proof of American tyranny, by others as a proof of the; treachery 
of low-class German immigrants to their Vaterland. 

The Overman bill's centralization of power in the President was 
said by the N orddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung of April 23, 1918, 
to "reveal the secret longing for the German unity and efficiency." 

An excellent study of the German newspapers, their censorship, 
the things they dare to say and dare not say, and their influence 
as means of governmental propaganda is to be found in Victor 
S. Clark's article in the Atlantic Monthly for July, 1918, "The 
German Press and German Opinion," 

Eidicule is, of course, one of the keenest tools for propaganda. 
The German humorists did not fail to make hay while the sun 
shone. A cloud has come over their gaiety, according to a writer 
in the New York Times: 

"The German sense of humor has undergone a radical change, 
and cartoons depicting the American Army a pigmy no longer 
make the German people laugh. Travelers returning from the 
Netherlands tell how Uncle Sam is being nourished by the Hun 



68 Propaganda 

cartoonists at a rate which will soon make him visible without 
the aid of a microscope. 

"Since we declared war, and up to four months ago, the United 
States Army was never pictured in Europe, and much amuse- 
ment was derived by caricaturing President Wilson's efforts to 
send a handful of soldiers to parade the villages of France to 
shout college yells. Our President was often portrayed as tear- 
ing his hair and trying to get American labor to 'hurry' and 
complete a paper boat while thousands of sturdy troops were 
waiting to embark. The building of our paper marine was being 
done by German laborers with their tongues in their cheeks, and 
when they condescended to drive a spike they did it through the 
bottom of the ship. 

"Four months ago these funny pictures, for some reason, 
ceased being amusing and the sturdy troops waiting at the docks 
were transported to Europe and ridiculed as weaklings. A boche 
aviator was pictured reporting to von Hindenburg that he had 
located the American Army asleep under a baby carriage. One 
cartoon entitled 'U. S. A. Scare-crow Army,' showed the Stars and 
Stripes in a corral surrounded by straw soldiers on exhibition. 
Another caricature, now out of vogue, portrayed an emaciated 
Uncle Sam dressed in the clothes of John Bull, which were made 
to fit by padding out his anatomy with New York newspaper 
boasts. 

"Today in order to tickle the German sense of the ridiculous, 
our army is depicted nearly large enough to warrant a hearty 
laugh and almost strong enough to annoy one Hun division. Not 
so much space, however, is devoted to funny pictures in the daily 
papers, and one must turn to the editorial page to see any allu- 
sion to our 'despicable army,' as it is never dignified by men- 
tion in the war news columns. These printed banalities do their 
best to gradually enlighten the people to the fact that our troops 
are 'over there.' The Kreuz-Zeititng, the ultra imperialistic Berlin 
newspaper, printed an editorial three weeks ago which began: 'It 
must be expected that by next Spring our new enemy will be able 
to muster about a million men on the western front, but — ' This 
'but' was followed by soothing, lullaby words to put the German 
mind in a comatose state. The Germans are starting a systematic 
propaganda to prevent the people from 'waking up' too suddenly." 

Sympathy with America could hardly be expected from the 
German press, but it is striking to see how each new situation is met 
by the sleepless propagandists. 

One of their tasks has been the persuasion of the public to 
the aims of the Government. In the Krupp works there are 
placards stating : "We feed forty million Eu'ssians and they rejoice 
to be under Germany's wing." 

Industrial Germany conducts an incessant propaganda in favor 
of the retention of Belgium and Northern France and every shift 
of policy finds its reflection in a drive for public opinion. Presi- 
dent Wilson stated that the German Government does not represent 
the German people. It is necessary for the propagandists to induce 
the people to represent the Government. 



Various For 7ns 69 

The suppression of newspapers that do not fall into line is 
sharp and severe. The censorship of public speech and of books 
and pamphlets opposing the annexationist policies of the Junker 
element is stringent and brutal. 

THE NEWS AGENCIES. 

According to Carl W. Ackerman^ in an article in the Saturday 
Evening Post of April 6, 1918;, German propaganda is already 
laying its plans for the far future : 

"A great newspaper trust is being formed in Germany and 
Austria-Hungary today by the war industries, the military lead- 
ers and the Fatherland party. Already important journals have 
been purchased in Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden, Bremen, Leipsic, 
Dantzic, Essen, Dusseldorf, Frankfort, Munich and Vienna. In 
addition the Wolff Bureau, the only news-distributing agency in 
Germany, and the Overseas News Service, which sends wireless 
dispatches from Berlin to the outside world, are controlled by 
this triple alliance of war business, war makers and war poli- 
ticians. 

"Fighting this organization, which seeks to monopolize the 
news channels of the two monarchies, are a few independent 
newspapers, the Social Democrats and the leaders of the Liberal 
party. Though these forces are waging a determined, relentless 
and severe fight for the freedom of the press, they are making lit- 
tle progress. The triple alliance has mobilized the money, 
power and influence of the nation, and it seeks today to manu- 
facture and export German public opinion. 

"Germany today is a war business organization more than it 
ever was before. And it is because this trust, which I have called 
the triple alliance, sees that it cannot dominate the government 
without controlling the press that it is campaigning today in the 
German newspapers. It is because this trust is looking ahead 
to the period after the war that it is mobilizing the export news 
channels of Germany to influence the world when peace is made. 
And the plans which the Alliance has made strike at the founda- 
tions of the American and Entente press freedom. 

"Germany's first move after the war, according to the plans 
which 'victorious' Berlin is making, is to be directed against 
the news-distributing agencies of England, France and the 
United States. German business men, army ofiicers and states- 
men have always maintained that if the government had spent 
billions of marks on foreign news propaganda years before the 
war the world would not be fighting Germany today. Perhaps 
they think the world would have been afraid to fight! Whether 
their opinion is sound is not our concern. The fact is that the 
enemy believes this, and the present leaders of Germany intend to 
conquer the world after the war with news and business. 

"We may ask how this can be accomplished, we may consider 
it impossible; but the fact remains that the money has been 
raised, the foundations have been laid, and all the triple alli- 
ance is awaiting is a German victory to end the war so the press 
campaign may begin. 

"Recently in Berne I met an Austrian journalist who had 
come from Vienna for a brief visit in Switzerland. 



70 Propaganda 

" 'The Krupp interests and the Pan-Germanists,' he declared, 
'own or control, through advertising agencies, every German- 
language newspaper in Vienna.' 

"It would be impossible, of course, for any German organiza- 
tion to go to the United States or any other large country after 
the war and purchase a sufficient number of newspapers to influ- 
ence public opinion, and the triple alliance does not intend to 
do so. It has a better method! About two years ago the news- 
paper experts of the German Government and the press repre- 
sentatives of Krupp and the big shipping companies began an 
investigation to find out the best means of influencing public 
opinion in foreign countries. The methods which made German 
propaganda famous during the war were considered bad. The 
Western world, so it was concluded, was too busy to be inter- 
ested in long editorial articles, but it was interested at all times 
in news dispatches. 

"As an experiment the Overseas News Agency, which was 
then supplying the American newspapers with wireless news 
from Berlin, was bought by the Krupp interests, and once or 
twice each day news from Berlin and other cities of Europe was 
sent to Sayville, Long Island, and from there distributed in the 
United States. By watching the American newspapers closely 
the directors of this new propaganda decided that American news 
channels could be influenced by news, if in no other way. 

"Though the Overseas News Agency was succeeding, before 
the United States broke diplomatic relations, in getting thou- 
sands of items printed in the American press, this success was 
not considered by the war industries so great as it could be, so 
they made other plans. And these are the ones which the triple 
alliance expects to execute when peace is made." 

BEEAKING THE NEWS OF THE AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES, 

At last the day has come when the German propagandist has 
the most delicate task of announcing the arrival of a great Ameri- 
can army. The first admissions are described in dispatches to the 
Times of June 13, 1918, by George Eenwick. The military critic, 
General von Liebert, of the Tdgliche Rundschau of Berlin, sounds 
the opening note: 

"Germany has hitherto only threatened us by means of mili- 
tary statistics, but now she appears herself on the field of bat- 
tle. She has come out of the stage of preparation for war and 
entered that of the actual fighting. So says General von Lieb- 
ert, military critic of the Tagliche Rundschau of Berlin. He 
terms the United States 'Germany's new enemy.' 

"He cannot help expressing surprise that nothing has been 
heard about the sinking of American transports by U-boats, and 
hopes that Germany's latest undersea cruisers are after that 
prey. 

"The Tdgliche Rundschau editorially informs its readers that 
the war has entered the American stage, the last and greatest of 
all, and that the German authorities know full well that this 
final part of the struggle is not far off. 

"Such statements are in keeping with the information I have 
from a reliable source to the effect that the instructions have 



Various Forms 71 

been sent around to the German press, informing the news- 
papers that it will be advisable gradually to prepare the coun- 
try for the news of the active participation of American forces 
in strength on the west front. 

"Such orders are being carried out in typical German style 
and just as the authorities doubtless desire. Numerous corre- 
spondents have been permitted to report that there are 500,000 
Americans on this side of the water. Having said so, they pro- 
ceed to calm the Fatherland's nerves with the assurance that of 
course half that number are employed on the lines of communi- 
cation while the other half are worth nothing. 

"So far the official and semi-official statements have nothing 
but American defeats to report, but the fact that the American 
forces are making themselves felt is one that can no longer be 
hidden from the German people, and these quotations are given 
to show that the authorities think it well that the period of 
wild, unbridled sneering and despising of Americans as actual 
factors on the western front had better be brought gradually 
to a close." 

PROPAGANDA BY ADVERTISING MONOPOLIES. 

In the effort to control the press of the world, the Germans 
discovered that a tremendous leverage could be exerted by securing 
control of the advertising business through the agencies. 

To purchase a great number of newspapers would be a ruinous 
expense. But a monopoly of advertising would effect the same result 
at a profit instead of a loss. In an article in the Atlantic Monthly, 
June, 1918, one "Lysis" gives the complete story of this far-sighted 
move. 

It began with the firm of Haasenstein and Vogler, formed in 
1882 and cooperating with a Swiss named Georg. The offices were- 
at Geneva. In 1902 branches were established in Italian cities 
with Germans as managers. Secret contracts were secured with 
eighty-one Italian papers, giving the agency the right to veto "all 
advertisements which it may deem injurious or inopportune." They 
practically monopolized the advertising business and thereby exerted 
great infiuence over editorial policies and compelled the publica- 
tion of doctored dispatches and propaganda. 

When Italy joined the Allies the agency and its local managers 
took an Italian name and passed for a Swiss concern. Many 
Italian papers broke with the concern, but the advertising monopoly 
still gave it great power. 

In France the same company under the same Swiss disguise 
established itself and according to "Lysis," proceeded "to make 
itself by slow degrees master of the French press." Georg added 
a large bill-posting business, with branches in many towns, and 



72 Propaganda 

used this as a club, threatening to resort to bill board advertising 
and dispense with the newspapers. 

The firm extended its ambitions to America in 1914 and 
secured many American advertising clients. The business was 
sequestered eventually in France; but it is believed that it ^vill 
increase again. Plans for combating the world-wide hostility to 
German wares after the war are already being laid. 



CHAPTEE IV. 

GEEMAN PEOPAGANDA IF AMEEICA. 

' The German invasion of America began long ago. Vast niiTn- 
bers of Germans have come to this country to breathe the air of 
liberty and they have made their home their new Fatherland. Their 
Americanism is all the stronger for their knowledge of old world 
conditions. Their sons are among the best of our soldiers. 

But others came from Germany for commercial reasons alone. 
They looked upon the United States as a future colony of Germany, 
They lost no opportunity to spread the language of Germany, to 
preach the superiority of her institutions and the inferiority of 
ours. 

They drew into their net many who were simply held to Ger- 
many by affection for their native land. They used these unsus- 
pecting persons as instruments. 

Numberless musical, athletic, financial and other Vereins and 
Bunds conceived in the most innocent of spirits have been regarded 
as ' opportunities to delay the absorption of the Germans into 
American life. 

The motives of the bulk of the membership were honest and 
their aim merely to keep tender memories aglow. But the honest 
Germans were in many cases the unsuspecting dupes of manipu- 
lators. 

THE DELBETJCK LAW. 

Thanks to the amazing Delbriick Law, passed in 1913, it was 
made legal for a German to have two countries. He was permitted 
to accept citizenship in sixteen other countries if it were to his 
advantage, without sacrificing his allegiance to Germany. 

The willingness of a nation to give official sanction to such a 
scheme for perjury with a mental reservation is one of the most 
eloquent evidences of the German stop-at-nothing policy. The law 
was the result of the efforts of the Pan-German League and the 
League for Germanism in Foreign Lands. It provided that 
"citizenship is not lost by one who, acquiring foreign citizenship, 
has secured on application the written consent of the proper author- 
ities of his home state to retain his citizenship." Doctor Delbriick 
himself thus explained the law that year in a speech to the Eeichs- 
tag : 

73 

(4) 



74 Propaganda 

"The Empire of Germany has also quite another interest now 
in attaching to itself all Germans who have emigrated, for the 
motives of emigration have in great part hecome quite different 
from what they were formerly. The German who emigrates 
how no longer does so with a view of separating himself eco- 
nomically and politically from his country; on the contrary, the 
large majority of those who emigrate go with the object -of 
serving their country economically and politically. * * * it 
is true that we recognize that there are cases where the German 
citizen abroad may have an interest in acquiring side by side 
with his old nationality a new nationality, the possession of 
which would still allow his usefully representing the interests of 
his Fatherland." 

Of this law David Lawrence sa^'s in an article in the Saturday 
Evening Post for June 15, 1918 : 

"It meant that the Germans who went to America could be- 
come naturalized if it helped them in their business and to finan- 
cial prosperity, but at the same time they would not forfeit their 
German citizenship. 

"This was not peculiar to America. There are and have been 
similar alliances in many countries of the world, all engaged in 
the same work. They are working in Denmark, Holland, Bel- 
gium, Northern France, Switzerland, Bohemia, Moravia, the Bal- 
tic provinces, Russian Poland, the Russian provinces along the 
Black Sea and elsewhere in Europe, and in the South Amer- 
ican countries, such as Chile, Argentina and Brazil. 

"Though figures are not available for recent years, there were 
up to 1902 no less than 5,240 schools spread throughout the 
world where only German was spoken. Brazil had six hundred 
of them in the southern provinces, where the Germans hoped 
some day to separate and establish a real German colony — some- 
thing that came as near being a violation of the Monroe Doctrine 
as anything the Prussians attempted before 1914. 

"About five hundred of these schools existed in the United 
States in 1902, and they have been increased since. They didn't 
receive any financial backing from the German Government, but 
were supported by religious bodies of German origin. They 
became in many cases outspoken in spreading German propa- 
ganda, and some have not even ceased since the United States 
entered the war. This is entirely aside from the many public 
schools where the population is almost entirely German. In the 
State schools in Nebraska and Wisconsin, for instance, maintained 
by taxation, there are German teachers of German descent and 
of strongly developed German affiliations. In one of the States 
the law requires that during nine months of the year school 
shall be held four months in English and five months in German." 



THE GERMAN SPY SYSTEM. 

An officer of the Military Intelligence has summarized the 
activities of German agents as follows: 

The German Foreign Office is in charge of propaganda and the 
attack along ethnographic, religious and political lines. Its agents 



In America 75 

are chosen for their social and intellectual qnalifieations, and ap- 
pear to consider themselves greatly superior to the agents of other 
systems. 

The German Admiralty Intelligence is in charge of sabotage, 
destruction of shipping and information as to naval matters. 

Boy-Ed, Naval Attache at Washington, appears to have started 
work along these lines in this country, but does not appear to have 
given satisfaction. 

Rintelen, Captain Kaval Reserve, attached to the Admiralty 
staff, claims to have superseded Boy-Ed and even to have acted 
independently of Bernstorff. Eintelen's activities consisted princi- 
pally in the destruction of shipping by fire-bombs, the fomenting 
of strikes and the movement for an embargo against the export of 
munitions. 

Wunnenberg was employed by Wilhelm, said to be the head of 
the Admiralty Intelligence, and was trained in the methods for 
the destruction of shipping of the naval base in Wilhelmshaven. 
Rutherford, Bacon and Hastings sent by him to England as spies, 
were furnished with questionnaires about naval matters. 

The German Army Intelligence appears to have been in charge 
of militain^ operations in the United States, of slowing up the manu- 
facture of munitions by commercial operations, and of smuggling 
contraband into Germany or into neutral countries for eventual 
use in Germany. 

Personnel. It is not believed that the Stieber system of planting 
spies was extensively carried out in this country. In the first place, 
Germany did not, in the years preceding 1914, expect that the war 
would last so long or that the United States would be actively 
involved. In the second place, Germany had reason to believe that 
the German-American population would remain loyal to the Father- 
land and would therefore furnish an unlimited supply of recruits, 
admirably adapted to the purpose. 

Financing. Albert, head of the German High Commission, 
commercial attache of the German Embassy, who came in Sep- 
tember and left iu February, 1917, had charge of the financing 
of all the German agents in this country, with the exception of 
Rintelen. All expenditures of $10,000 or over were submitted to 
him for approval. Funds were derived from the sales of German 
bonds, Red Cross subscriptions, etc., or by wdreless transfers from 
Germany. In certain cases, particularly in criminal transactions 
directed by the Admiralty, funds were not provided by Albert, but 



76 Propaganda 

were transferred direct from Germany under cover of commercial 
transactions. 

Since February, 1917, funds have been furnished from Germany 
through banking and commercial houses. It is also believed that 
considerable funds were left in this country in dormant accounts 
for future use. 

A strict accounting, characterized by German thoroughness, has 
been required of all agents. A part of these accounts are still in 
possession of the Swiss diplomatic officers, who took over German 
interests in February, 1917. Others probably have been left for 
safekeeping with sympathizers. 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE. 

A general review of the German campaign against America has 
been given out just as this book goes to press. It is quoted at length 
from the July 15, 1918, issue of the New York Times: 

"The whole German propaganda which was put in operation 
before the European war was a month old, and the purpose of 
which was to debauch public opinion in the United States in 
favor of Germany and Austria-Hungary, is on the eve of being 
exposed. The Government is now in possession of the names of 
practically the entire personnel employed by the Germans. 

"These men are now being sought by Federal agents, and as 
fast as located are taken to the office of Attorney General Merton 
E. Lewis at 51 Chambers Street for examination. Included 
among those who were identified with the propaganda are sev- 
eral Americans, some of them writers of more than local fame. 

" 'And I may add,' said Deputy Attorney General Alfred L. 
Becker yesterday, 'that among the Americans who had a part in 
this German hatched plot to influence public opinion in this 
country were two or three who have been violently patriotic of 
late.' 

"The headquarters of the propaganda machine were at 1153 
Broadway, in the offices of the German Red Cross Commission 
to the United States, of which Dr. Bernard Dernburg, Captain 
Ewald Hecker and Dr. Karl Fuehr were members. Until Dr. 
Dernburg was ordered to leave the country he was the head of 
the propaganda machine. When he left Dr. Albert took the helm, 
and when Dr. Albert received his walking papers, the late Hugo 
Schweitzer, who was named in the treason indictments recently 
handed down by the Federal Grand Jury, took charge. 

"There was, Mr. Becker explained yesterday, a regular Board 
of Directors, the representatives of the Kaiser on the board being 
Captain Karl Boy-Ed, Captain Franz von Papen, Dr. Dernburg, 
Dr. Fuehr, Captain Hecker, and Dr. Albert, with Count von Bern- 
storff exercising supreme authority as chairman ex officio. For 
reasons which are obvious, Mr. Becker said, it was not advisable 
at this time to make public the names of the Americans who were 
concerned in the activities of the alien propagandists. 

" 'At the proper time,' added Mr. Becker, 'those names will be 
given to the public' 



In America 11 

"It was stated at the office of the Attorney General that Dr. 
Edward A. Rumely, arrested a week ago as a result of his connec- 
tion with the then German owned Evening Mail, was an almost 
daily visitor to the headquarters at 1153 Broadway. Two New 
York lawyers, who were close to von Bernstorff and who acted 
as his legal advisers in matters of first importance, also conferred 
with the Board on numerous occasions. These lawyers had a 
prominent part in the negotiations which led to the acquisition 
of the Mail by the Kaiser. 

"The German Red Cross Commission, which came over as 
official camouflage for the Kaiser's propaganda machine, arrived 
in this country about four weeks after the outbreak of the war. 
Dernburg came as head of the commission, and in one of his first 
interviews, printed in the Times of September 6, 1914, he said: 

" 'I have come here to make arrangements for co-operation 
between the Red Cross Society of Germany and that of the United 
States. Of course, the Germans will do what they can to facilitate 
the work of all whose humanitarian impulses lead them to assist 
us in this hour of national stress.' 

"Within a few days after he landed the German Red Cross 
office was opened at 1153 Broadway, on the floor above the edi- 
torial rooms of the pro-German weekly known as The Fatherland, 
and the editor of which was George Sylvester Viereck. Mr. Vier- 
eck, it was said at the office of the Attorney General, visited the 
Red Cross offices of Dernburg, Fuehr and Hecker on many occa- 
sions. 

"The fact that the German Government, as one of its first 
acts after the war started, took advantage of the Red Cross as a 
cloak to poison the minds of the citizens of the United States 
was definitely established by the Attorney General about four 
weeks ago. Certain documents and other data which came into 
the possession of Attorney General Lewis, with subsequent im- 
portant admissions by persons who have been examined in the 
course of the investigation, proved beyond doubt that so far as 
Germany was concerned the German Red Cross is and has been 
since she went to war a part of the imperial war machine, and 
used as a camouflage to cloak propagandist and spy activities in 
enemy and neutral countries. So far as concern the activities of 
certain Americans in the propaganda campaign which was waged 
from the beginning of the war and up to several months subse- 
quent to this country's entrance into it, the following statement 
was made at the office of Attorney General Lewis last night: 

" 'The Government (the Attorney General is acting for the 
Federal Government) is continuing the examination of witnesses. 
We have examined a large number in the last few days. Our 
purpose is to get everybody who is now in the United States who 
was concerned in the operation of the German propaganda in this 
country. We expect to identify and expose those still in the 
United States and to name those who are out of our jurisdiction, 
that is, who are now domiciled in enemy or neutral countries.' 

"That the case of the Evening Mail and its purchase by the 
German Government is only one feature of the investigation was 
emphasized by Deputy Attorney General Becker. 

" 'The ramifications in this case,' said Mr. Becker, 'do not ex- 
tend to Rumely alone. Rumely is only a cog in a very big ma- 
chine. I may add that there are some witnesses whose testimony 
is desired by the authorities who are keeping under cover. It 
would be the part of wisdom on the part of these persons to 
come forward at once. By so doing they may save themselves a 
lot of trouble later on.' 



78 Propaganda 

"When Dernburg was not present at the meeting of the Prop- 
aganda Board, at 1153 Broadway, Mr. Becker said, Boy-Ed or von 
Papen and sometimes Dr. Albert directed the work. Every phase 
of the situation in the United States was discussed at these meet- 
ings and plans mapped out to combat the pro-Ally sentiment 
which was sweeping the country. Persons, in numerous in- 
stances whose services could be had for a price and whose pro- 
Germanism was sufficiently pronounced to make them worthy of 
trust by the Germans, were invited to meet the members of the 
board and contracts entered into with them. Dr. Fuehr, who 
has been the head of the German Secret Service in Japan, handled 
the financial end of the negotiations and, Mr. Becker said, issued 
pay checks which were cashed at the office of the Hamburg-Amer- 
ican Line. 

" 'Were the checks for large or small amounts?' Mr. Becker 
was asked. 

" 'I can assure you,' he replied, 'that Fuehr was no piker.' 

"A part of the elaborate scheme which was worked out by the 
Dernburg 'Red Cross' machine was the establishment of a direct 
news service, controlled by the German Government, between 
Berlin and New York. This was to be made possible by using 
the service of the Transoceanic News Service, a German propa- 
ganda organization, with branches in every country in the world 
at the present time, except those at war with the Central Powers. 
The news was sold at a nominal cost when possible, but if neces- 
sary was to be supplied to all papers willing to print it free of 
charge. 

"While all this plotting was going on Dernburg was still 
representing himself in America as the representative of the 
German Red Cross, despite the fact that he was daily giving out 
interviews in an effort to switch the public opinion of the country 
to the Kaiser. For several months Dernburg continued to make 
his headquarters at 1153 Broadway, and did not change them 
until some of the newspapers began to print stories to the ef- 
fect that his 'Red Cross' activities were only camouflage for 
unneutral work in this country. 

"Dernburg then changed his headquarters to the Ritz-Carlton 
Hotel and continued it there until his departure from the coun- 
try in June, 1915. He continued, however, to attend the meetings 
of the board at 1153 Broadway, where after his departure Hecker 
was nominally in charge as 'Red Cross Commissioner.' 

"Dernburg, who was ordered to leave the country following 
his efforts to justify the murder of the passengers on the Lusi- 
tania, is said to have received as head of the 'Red Cross Commis- 
sion' more than $1,985,000 from Germans and German sympa- 
thizers in the United States. Whether or not all of this money 
reached Germany or whether a considerable part of it was used 
in propaganda and plot work in the United States is a feature of 
the case that Attorney General Lewis expects to solve. Three 
days after Dernburg left, and after Albert had succeeded to the 
Chairmanship of the Propaganda Board, Captain Hecker an- 
nounced that he had succeeded Dernburg as 'Red Cross Commis- 
sioner' and issued an appeal for more 'Red Cross' funds. 

" 'In this hour,' he said, 'we need our friends more than ever 
and depend upon their further aid to carry on our charitable 
work.' 

"Hecker, however, did not succeed to Dernburg's high position 
on the Propaganda Board. That mantle fell on the shoulders of 
Dr. Heinrich Albert, the chief paymaster of the whole German 
war machine in this country. Albert held the job until he was 



In America 79 

ordered out of the country in March, 1917, and after that time 
and until his death Schweitzer was the nominal head of the 
board." 

THE GERMAN-AMERICAN ALLIANCE. 

One of the most powerful organizations for propaganda in Amer- 
ica has been the Deutsch-Amerikanischer Bund, generally known as 
the German-i\.merican Alliance. It reached a membership of two 
million members. It began with the local grouping of German 
singing, athletic and other societies. These were amalgamated 
into State alliances and these into a national body in 1901. 

After many annual conventions a national charter was secured 
from Congress in 1907. That charter was dissolved in 1918 after 
a startling exposure of the aims and achievements of the Alliance. 
As at home, the German theory of autocracy is instilled into the 
infant mind, so this American representative made a determined 
effort to secure control over the schools of America; to introduce 
the study of the German language and, of course, incidentally of 
German propaganda in all schools, and the exclusive use of the 
German language in as many as possible. This last end had been 
attained in 500 parochial schools. In some of the States public 
moneys were used for the support of schools in which German 
was taught altogether, for portions of the year. 

To resist assimilation into the American ideal was the deter- 
mination. The President, Charles J. Hexamer, at a convention, 
dared to say in an address : 

"We have long suffered the preachment that '^you Germans must 
allow yourselves to be assimilated. You must merge with the 
American people.' But no one will ever find us prepared to descend 
to an inferior Kultur." 

Again as late as November, 1915, he said: "We will not permit 
our Kultur of two thousand years to be trodden down in this land. 
* * * We are giving this people here the best thing there is 
on earth, Germanic Kultur." 

State legislatures were packed and politicians overawed into 
giving the avoM^edly insoluble element powers that seem incredible 
now. There was hardly a town in America where this Alliance 
was not at work. It had ten thousand local societies taking constant 
care to holding the young of German heritage "in the bonds of 
Germanism," as the Alldeutsche Blatter phrases it, and filling young 
American minds with reverence for German Kultur, even to the 
extent of forcing Teutonic schoolbooks on them. 



80 Propaganda 

A year later a writer for the same Gazette proclaimed that "It 
is the duty of everyone who loves languages to see that the future 
language spoken in America shall be German. Germans need only 
grasp the situation and the future is theirs." 

The German-American Alliance published a regular magazine, 
Mitteilungen des D-A. B., also yearbooks that make astonishing^ 
reading now, though the whole conduct of the Imperial Government 
confirms the plan of universal domination by any means. The 
yearbooks recorded incessant attacks on legislatures and school 
boards and boasted of political power ruthlessly wielded. 

The supreme impudence was the raising of funds "to combat 
nativistic efforts." For immigrants to coin such a word as "nativ- 
istic" for the desire of their new country to maintain its institu- 
tions is the sublimity of disloyalty. 

It is small wonder that Hexamer, the President, was decorated 
by the Kaiser in 1904 with the Fourth Order of the Eed Eagle, 

The Eussian revolutionists who published the secret documents 
they found, included among their exposures this circular telegram 
from the German Government: 

"It is brought to your knowledge that in the countries where 
you are accredited there have been founded special bureaus for 
organizing propaganda in countries of the coalition at war with 
Germany. The propaganda will have for its aim the inception, 
of social movements accompanied -by strikes, revolutionary ex- 
plosions, separatist movements and civil war, as well as an agi- 
tation in favor of disarmament and the cessation of this bloody 
war." 

The ten thousand branches of the German-American Alliance 
were so many centers of propaganda and they sprang into activity 
at the outbreak of the war. President Hexamer a month later 
was ready with this pronouncement in the official organ: 

"In every city there should be a bureau of literature with an 
efficient press agent established, a press agent who should react 
immediately in the English language upon all hostile attacks and 
statements of ignorance of irresponsible reporters of English 
newspapers. 

"Furthermore in every branch of this organization collec- 
tions should be inaugurated whose proceeds should be kept for 
the use of the national executive of the National German-Amer- 
ican Alliance right up to the time when the national executive 
In accordance with the purpose of these collections may apply 
them for our relations in Germany or at any other place where 
a crying need is directed to us." 

To quote again from David Lawrence's article: 



In America 81 

"This was followed by a summons 'to all German instructors, 
all who have studied in German universities and to every German 
who is literarily inclined' to handle the American press, which 
meant a counter propaganda designed to make Americans dis- 
"believe German aggression in Belgium and the horrors that Ger- 
man Kultur had imposed on peaceful neighbors and the civ- 
ilized world. 

"Newspapers in Germany were prompt to praise the American 
citizens of German descent for performing such good 'military 
.service' to Germany. 
^ "That military service, to be sure, was nothing more nor less 

than embarrassing the United States Government by seeking to 
make it adopt pro-German policies. There were organized in this 
country, moreover, several societies that did not have the official 
sanction of the German-American Alliance or any direct connec- 
tion, but whose officers and members were identical in many cases 
with the executive committees of state and city alliances; and all 
-worked to influence the United States to be unneutral and pro- 
German. 

"The embargo conference at Chicago in 1915 is a case in 
point. It pretended to be an organization of Americans, but its 
funds were discovered by the Department of Justice to have 
come from German sources. Of similar character were the 
Priends of Peace, the American Neutrality League, the Amer- 
ican Independence Union, the American Truth Society and 
liabor's National Peace Council. It has been proved that Franz 
von Rintelen, the bomb plotter, now in the Federal peniten- 
tiary, furnished hundreds of thousands of dollars to some of 
these organizations. The National German-American Alliance did 
not act as a whole or officially toward these organizations, but 
individuals did who received their inspiration from the alliance. 
And so the work of Germanizing America went on before we 
entered the war — and many years before the European War itself 
■came. 

"By spreading propaganda through the schools and German 
•societies in states, cities and towns the tragedy of Belgium was 
made to appear as a fabrication, the sinkings without warning of 
passenger vessels were justified, and incessant efforts were made 
to get America to cripple the Allies by cutting off the flow of 
munitions. Through the German language press and the Ger- 
man colonies, where German teachers taught the American 
children of German parents, a spirit in favor of the Fatherland 
was preserved that transcended any enthusiasm that has since 
l)6en shown for the United States on entering the war. 

"And the National German-American Alliance had a Federal 
charter granted it by Congress in 1907! When Senator King, 
of Utah, started the agitation to have the charter revoked the 
alliance voluntarily dissolved and thought it would forestall 
action, but the Senators construed the move as merely an effort to 
maintain the organization after the war. So the Senate Judiciary 
Committee unanimously recommended revoking the charter. 

"But the discussion incident to the German-American Alli- 
ance's activities produced two very live questions: Shall the 
teaching of German be abolished in American schools? Shall 
the German-language press be prohibited from circulation?" 

It should be emphasized that the guilt of the officials and 
leaders of the Alliance was not shared by all the members. Great 



82 Propaganda 

numbers of them never dreamed that they were being used. They 
were not aware that the Alliance was- a branch of the Pan-German 
League. As soon as they understood this, they were sincere in their 
eagerness to escape from the association and to dissolve it. In many 
cases the funds in the treasury were turned over to the Eed Cross. 
The national officials took legal steps to dissolve the Alliance, but 
this was not accepted as legal, and on July 2, 1918, the King 
resolution repealing the charter was passed by the Senate unani- 
mously. 

All the while, however, the propaganda went on to carry 
out the Pan-German ideal of a solid block of German elements in 
every country, and a truceless war against other races. In the 
Mitteilungen of the Alliance, Vol. 7, ISTo. 9, p. -4, appeared this 
fierce doctrine : 

"The National Alliance leads the battle against Anglo-Saxon- 
ism, against the fanatical slaves of political and personal liberty. 
It battles against narrow-hearted dark know-nothingism, against 
the British influence, against the zealotism which sprang from 
England and against the slavery of Puritanism. 

"Only in vigorous unity does the welfare of American Ger- 
manism rest. Every division of our powers is a betrayal of the 
cause of German Kultur." 

The political solidarity of the Alliance is shown in the Bulletin 
for April, 1916, page 17, where an ex-Congressman thus addresses 
the readers : 

"Just as Europe has fallen upon Germany, so America is 
now falling upon German-Americans, or attacking them; but 
we have a weapon which we can use to good effect — namely, 
our ballots, and in these days, so dark for Germanism, we must 
use our ballots for our Germanism." 

In his testimony before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 
in 1918, Gustavus Ohlinger, president of the Toledo Chamber of 
Commerce, stated that the activity of the Alliance was "in fact and 
purpose part of the military plan of Germany as directed against 
the United States." 

"I say, advisedly, German military preparation against the 
United States began twenty years ago, and the same process was 
followed with the United States as was followed in so many other 
countries; that is the policy of infiltration, of propaganda for the 
purpose of destroying the national spirit of a country. That is 
the plan of the German general staff, and that is the thing, I 
believe, which this country will have to guard against more than 
anything else. You cannot have an army fighting valiantly for a 
country that has not a red hot, flaming national spirit. No 



In America 83 

soldier is going to go into the trenches and sacrifice himself to 
all the miseries of warfare for a country that has not a red hot, 
flaming national spirit. You cannot expect it, and the object 
of the German general staff was to destroy the national spirit 
of America, so that the organization of any national spirit back 
of the army would be absolutely impossible, and they very nearly 
succeeded. A few years more and there would not have been 
enough national spirit in the United States to count for any- 
thing against the idea of 'Deutschland Uber Alles,' and that is 
the real meaning of this national German-American Alliance. 

"Now, I do not mean to say that everyone in that organi- 
zation knew what it was doing, and that it was a part of the 
plan of the German general staff; but that does not detract 
from the fact that it was operating in favor of the German gen- 
eral staff as a matter of the larger strategy. Miinsterberg him- 
self, in one of the places that is quoted in this bulletin, says: 

" 'Your Plattsburg camps and your cantonments can not pro- 
duce an army. An army must begin in the nursery and the 
school room.' 

"This is supported in Bernhardi's famous book, 'Germany and 
the Next War.' 

"The ways and means to spread the propaganda of the Ger- 
man-American Alliance, carry out its object and undermine 
the spirit of America, evidently attracted considerable study. 
President Hexamer himself gave the matter his attention, and 
the Bulletin finally acted. 

"The evidence of that is the Official Bulletin for September, 
1914, page 1. This is the heading: 'Dr. Hexamer's Appeal in the 
Interests of the Old Fatherland.' Subheading 'All Germans 
Should Stand Together and Oppose Unfriendly Attacks in a 
Vigorous Manner.' 

"Dr. Hexamer, on the third of August issued the following 
appeal to the German press, and he says in this appeal this: 

" 'In every city there should be a literary bureau established 
with a thoroughly competent press agent who could immediately 
make reply to the virulent attacks and statements due to the 
ignorance of the irresponsible reporters of the English language 
press. Furthermore, there should be established in every branch 
society funds for the benefit of the sufferers from the war in the 
old country.' 

"Another appeal, which follows this one on the same page, 
says: 

" 'To all German teachers, to all who have studied in German 
universities, and to every man or woman of German race with 
literary ability: 

" 'The National Alliance is in need in many places of people 
who can undertake a vigorous literary polemic against the Eng- 
lish newspapers. I therefore call upon all who are in a position 
in their home towns to read the English press and the English 
newspapers to send articles correcting the misstatements to the 
owners and editors thereof, and also, by means of original articles 
offered to the Anglo-American press, to work for the German 
cause. Those, however, who have difficulty in expressing their 
thoughts in good English should write down their thoughts in 
German and make use of a translator.' 

"But the appeal as given above was not the first issued, 
although it is the most broad and certain in its meaning. 

"On August 3, preceding the declaration of war between Ger- 
many and England, when the German ambassador in London 



84 Propaganda 

was 'still hopeful,' President Hexamer of the German-American 
Alliance called upon Germans in the United States to take up 
the task of fighting Anglo-Saxon influence." 

Taking into consideration the secret and also the open pressure 
brought to bear upon the people and their representatives by this 
organization and others, and their effort to postpone America's 
entrance into the war, and to paralyze preparedness, their propa- 
ganda work can be seen to have had a military influence directly 
translatable into soldiers and weapons. 

THE GERMAN LUTHERAN CHURCH. 

One of the most delicate problems of the war has been the 
treatment due such clergymen as oppose the war policies of the 
Government from the shelter of the pulpit. The clergy as a whole 
have been intensely patriotic, but in every demonstration indi- 
viduals have given out utterances of the most seditious character. 
It is not surprising that some of these should be of the German 
Lutheran faith. 

Without underrating the loyalty of the vast majority of the 
members of this church, it is important to realize that a certain 
element of it has remained irreconcilable even to the liberal neces- 
sities of Americanization. A clergyman of this denomination has 
written for the Military Intelligence Branch a study of the attitude 
of the dangerous faction, and of the use made of even the most 
sacred ties by the German propagandists. This clergyman aroused 
vigorous hostility for his own pro-Americanism. His statement 
may be briefly summed up as follows : 

"The end of the Thirty Years War witnessed the treaty of 
Westphalia, giving to the Calvinists the privileges denied them, 
but granted to the Lutherans by the treaty of Augsburg. The 
Calvinists peopled the Northern countries, Sweden, Denmark, etc. 
the Lutherans South Germany, the Catholics North Germany. In 
German Theological Institutions, Catholicism and Protestantism, 
which latter term means Lutheranism, are the only two religions 
mentioned or taught. German propaganda made and is making 
the best use of Luther's ideas of the relations of church and 
state, and church and people, a democratic constitution with 
autocratic application as e. g., the Lutheran pastor, though chosen 
by the congregation, becomes the Spiritual head by Divine inter- 
vention, removable for heresy alone, and then only by the highest 
church authorities. 

"The Lutheran Church of the United States, save a few 
synods, has largely avoided contact with American religious life, 
and fosters a monarchical sympathy. The use of the German 
language has been favored, frequently insisted upon. Dr. Konuth 



In America 85 

of the German council says: 'Take care of the German lan- 
guage — the English will take care of itself.' 

"The Lutheran Church has generally endeavored to keep its 
congregations free from America's 'contaminating influence.' It 
has kept close touch with the church and other associations in 
Germany, and maintained an outspoken distrust of democratic 
movements. 

"To protect the congregations from Americanization the pa- 
rochial school system was kept up, with strong efforts to save the 
second and third generation for Germany. The public schools 
were feared and assailed in sermons, church papers and confer- 
ences. Pastors were given official recognition for successful pa- 
rochial work and parents constantly impressed with the dangers 
of the 'heathenish' public schools. 

"German Lutheran Colleges and Academies are urged upon 
its people. German history and literature are taught in all of 
these, and the superiority of everything 'deutsch' asserted. 

"In the State of Missouri, with 1,100 Lutheran teachers and 
2,300 pastors, and in Pennsylvania, the second and even third 
generation of German Lutherans cannot read or understand 
English. Efforts of young pastors to introduce English in their 
service and school work were frowned upon officially, even call- 
ing forth reprimands. 

"The elderly German clergyman had a personal interest in 
this work since the process of Americanization through public 
schools brings nearer the day when his congregation will forget 
their German and tell him they cannot understand 'Luther's 
language.' Hence the old clergyman 'stalks through American 
life, essentially a German Monarchist, ignorant of this country's 
history and ideals; scowling at its national, political and religious 
life; too narrow, too conceited and prejudiced and too lazy to 
allow himself to doubt his right to his anti-American attitude — 
despising to become a citizen — the agent of the German language 
press — an ideal agent for German propaganda.' 

"The present patriotic activity of Lutheran bodies in behalf 
of the Army and Navy, the Red Cross, etc., is not necessarily 
an indication of a change of the prevailing pro-German sentiment, 
but may be dictated by the interest of Lutheranism and fear of 
possible measures against their German language. 

"A unique political meeting, since known as the 'Embargo 
Conference,' was held in Chicago in January, 1916. Members of 
different religious denominations were invited to attend this 
meeting, with the promise from its promoters that all railway 
fares and hotel bills would be provided for. A large nunlber of 
Lutheran ministers attended, and Mr. Edward Goldbeck (Prus- 
sian officer and Chicago Tribune correspondent) presided, and 
instructed his hearers to vote against Wilson and to advise 
their parishioners to swell the anti-administration vote. The 
Lutheran church and its synods, because of their co-ordination 
and solidity, were regarded as a better channel for the distribu- 
tion of German propaganda than the disconnected branches of 
the German-American Alliance." 

Against this conference must be set the action of the Lutheran 
convention at Atlantic City, July 10, 1918, resulting in the con- 
solidation of the United Lutheran Church of America, with 5,000 
churches, 6 seminaries and 12 colleges. In West Hope, Ohio, July 



86 Propaganda 

Id, 1918^ a German Lutheran minister was chased from his home 
by his own congregation because of seditious language and insults 
to the flag. 

In view of all the facts^, the loyalty of the bulk of the German 
Lutheran membership is the more commendable. Extra credit is 
due also to an organization of loyal Germans aiming to export 
American ideals of liberty to Germany. 

THE FRIENDS OF GERMAN DEMOCRACY. 

Gradually great numbers of Germans began to understand how 
they had been misled by such organizations as the German- American 
Alliance and by many, though by no means all, of the German 
language newspapers. An effort has recently been made to re- 
deem the German element from the suspicion of being largely 
hostile to the American ideal. In this work the Friends of German 
Democracy have accomplished excellent results. Their larger am- 
bition is to spread republican propaganda in Germany, but inci- 
dentally they furnish a rallying center for people of German 
descent. 

In a statement of June 14, 1918, this organization publishes an 
indictment against the disloyal or stiff-necked editors who used 
the privileges of a free press here for inculcating the doctrines of 
:an empire where a free press can not exist : 

"From the day when the American people joined the ranks 
of those nations who battle against a military autocracy, the 
demand to present a homogeneous, whole-hearted, unified Amer- 
ica free from foreign inspirations became predominant. A thor- 
oughly unified America became the issue, and only 100 per cent 
Americans had a place in it. 

"All that the German language press could not or would not 
see. On the contrary, these newspapers still clung to opinions 
and ideas which have no place in that America that is giving its 
heart blood for a fighting democracy; ideas which they had been 
allowed to indulge in too long. And when these German-Ameri- 
can papers really acted upon purely American impulses they did 
it with a certain mental reservation. They evidently lacked a 
elear insight to visualize that the proverbially indulgent Ameri- 
can people, now at war, might change front over night, as soon 
as the grim aspect of the war made itself felt, as soon as the lists 
of dead and wounded and the disclosures of intrigue and prop- 
aganda would impress the public. 

"That there are exceptions among these newspapers we read- 
ily grant. There are some who have learned that the issue of 
the hour is to have nothing in common with that political Ger- 
many as it is today which does not include the great mass of 
German people. 



In America 87 

"There is only one way. It is perhaps not too late even now to 
prevent the catastrophe which threatens them. There is no 
soft middle ground, no standing apart any more. What is loyalty 
for the others must be loyalty for them, in future, but not one 
point less." 

INFLUENCE OF PROPAGANDA IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Mr. William Hogg, of Texas, vividly describes the influence 
of German propaganda before the war when he says : 

"A million German soldiers in America would have done us 
less harm than the secret propagandists against preparedness. 
The presence of these soldiers would have roused the whole na- 
tion to arms, for an army in open attack stimulates. Propa- 
ganda stifles and discourages. The propagandist is more danger- 
ous than the invader or the spy." 

It has not seemed feasible to combat hostile propaganda under 
the laws against treason. And yet it is in a very real sense a levying 
of war in the United States. What else is it but a levying of war ? 
Indeed it is the only form of war open to the partisans of Germany, 
since they have not been able to control the ocean and send their 
battleships and transports against our shores. 

The only maritime warfare that Germany has been able to 
wage at sea has been by the submarine, and that she has carried 
on with the ruthless cowardice of assassination. Propaganda bears 
a striking resemblance to submarine attack and it has been carried 
•on with a kindred shamelessness. 

Since our entry into the war, America is too far away to be 
effectively reached by a rain of airship literature, but her propa- 
gandists reach the uttermost recesses of the country by one means 
or another, each of them with one military end in view, that of 
preventing or diminishing our effectiveness on the firing line. 

The unscrupulous efficiency of German propaganda is seen 
in the willingness of that nation of autocracy to make use of any 
doctrine or any zealot likely to cause trouble for America or any 
of her Allies. In Germany, Belgian and French prisoners have 
been forced to slavery in the factories; German strikers have 
been put under military control, and threatened with death if 
they fail to return to their tasks, and even members of the Eeichs- 
tag have been sentenced to prison for the slightest interest in the 
rights of laboring men. In Germany, the military power is supreme, 
and sanctified by all that religious pretence can hallow it with. 
But for other countries German doctrine advocated chaos. 



88 Propaganda 

We see German money and influence devoted to helping the 
causes of the most extreme radicals, the wildest anarchistic 
theories and the complete encouragement of the vicious, not merely 
to strike but to destroy factories, ruin machinery, kill workmen, 
and stop the flow of military supplies at any cost. We see the most 
warlike nation of modern times spending money and scattering 
literature to spread any form of pacifism, non-preparedness, 
religious or so-called conscientious objection that may hamper re- 
sistance. 

A nation which carried preparedness to the extreme limit at 
home, used her ambassadors, consuls, attaches and agents of every 
sort to discredit and defeat the movement of preparedness in the 
United States. Documentary proofs abound of moneys spent in 
the effort to bribe, wheedle, or frighten members of Congress into 
opposing military appropriations, into causing a deadlock in the 
vote for war, and afterward into opposing every obstacle to the laws 
for universal service. 

PROPAGANDA BY NEWSPAPERS. 

The elaborate efforts to control the press of various nations 
by various methods have already been referred to. When the 
I'nited States was neutral, the German language newspapers served 
as an army already entrenched. This did not prevent numberless 
attempts to control, to divert, to deceive, or to destroy papers pub- 
lished in English. 

The story of the outright purchase of a ISTew York daily paper 
after a prolonged study of the field, has just been published, though 
it was well known in many departments for a long time. 

There is a humorous phase to the matter in that we see the 
solemn conclave making its choice of papers to buy and investing 
an immense sum in its acquisition, only to have the secret discovered 
at once by the majority of the public. As if this had not been 
embarrassment enough, America declared war on Germany and 
it was necessary for the paper to cease even the subtly poisonous 
tone of its first utterances and keep up in self-defense a violent 
anti-German uproar to distract attention from its past. 

The ill-starred American-born agent who was left marooned 
with the paper on his hands — and the maintenance of a daily paper 
is sufficiently troublesome without further complications— kept up 
a lively fire against Germany with the German-owned machine gun, 
but he was finally taken away from it. 



In America 89 

The story is a long one, but even so incomplete a sketch of 
German propaganda as this work could hardly omit a reference to 
the immortal comedy-tragedy of the New York Evening Mail. 
From the New York Times of July 9, 1918, the following excerpts 
are made : 

"Edward A. Rumely, Vice President, secretary and publisher 
of The New York Evening Mail, was arrested late yesterday after- 
noon by agents of the Government, charged with perjury. The 
charge grew out of a statement filed with A. Mitchell Palmer, the 
Alien Property Custodian, in which Rumely asserted that the 
Evening Mail was an American-owned newspaper. The Govern- 
ment is in possession of evidence which, it is held, shows that 
instead of being owned by Americans, the paper is in fact owned 
by the Imperial German Government, which on July 1, 1915, paid 
to Rumely, through Walter Lyon, of the former Wall Street house 
of Renskorf, Lyon & Co., the sum of $735,000, which transferred 
the control of the newspaper to the Kaiser. 

"The Attorney General said that the investigation, which had 
culminated so sensationally just before dusk of yesterday, had 
been under way for several months, the Federal and State au- 
thorities working hand in hand and with the cooperation of A. 
Mitchell Palmer, the Alien Property Custodian. 

"The charge upon which Mr. Rumely was committed to the 
Tombs, the papers in the case being signed by United States Com- 
missioner Hitchcock, was sworn to by Deputy Attorney General 
Becker. No bail was fixed at the time of the commitment, but 
late last night it was announced that bail had been fixed in the 
sum of $100,000 and that friends of the accused publisher were 
trying .to get bondsmen. 

"In many respects the financial features of the transactions 
which the Government charges transferred the control of the 
Evening Mail from American to German interests were similar 
to the plan followed by Bernstorff, Adolph Pavenstedt and Hugo 
Schmidt in transferring the huge sum which was paid to Bolo 
Pasha, the executed French traitor, to debauch French public 
opinion in favor of a German-made peace. In the case of Bolo, 
the funds, which totaled about $1,700,000, passed through a num- 
ber of banks before they reached Bolo. 

"In this case, according to the Government agents, there were 
also several transfers. Dr. Heinrich Albert, the former German 
paymaster in this country, drawing the money out of banks in 
the form of cashiers' checks, which went to Walter Lyon, who, in 
turn, endorsed them to the firm of Renskorf, Lyon & Co. Rens- 
korf, Lyon & Co., it is alleged, subsequently paid the purchase 
amount in a single check to Lyon, who then, it is charged, paid 
it to Rumely. For this transaction, according to the Government, 
Lyon received a commission of $5,000. 

"The banks which figured in the original transactions which 
involved the first payment of the purchase price of $735,000 were 
the Equitable Trust Company, the Manhattan Company, the 
Columbia Trust Company, and the Farmers' Loan and Trust 
Company. 

"But the $750,000 payment was only .about one-half of the 
financial outlay expended by the Germans in their efforts to 
have their own public opinion-making New York daily. After 
the Evening Mail had passed into Rumely's control, the Attorney 



90 Propaganda 

General said last night, it soon began to lose money. With its 
change from pro-Ally to pro-German sentiment its subscription 
lists began to dwindle and its income from other sources began 
to decline. The result was that, beginning in January, 1916, and 
up to the time that Bernstorff was dismissed from the United 
States the Evening Mail, according to the Government agents, 
cost the Kaiser an additional $626,000, or a total including the 
purchase price, of $1,361,000. 

"In announcing the arrest of Mr. Rumely, and, subsequently, 
in making public some of the details of the international transac- 
tion. Attorney General Lewis, referring to the total sum of $1,- 
361,000, added the comment that 'this amount represents the total 
moneys paid so far as has been traced by the Federal and State 
officials up to the present time.' 

" 'The documents in the case,' added the Attorney General, 
'indicate that Rumely purchased the stock of the Mail and Ex- 
press Company from Henry L. Stoddard in June, 1915, the money 
paid to Rumely being drawn from deposits of the German Gov- 
ernment at various banks in the City of New York, these accounts 
standing in the name of Bernstorff, the former Ambassador of 
Germany at Washington, and of Dr. Heinrich Albert, who was 
know, I believe, as the Commercial Attache of the Embassy. 
The money was drawn from the joint accounts of Bernstorff and 
Albert. 

" 'The transfers of the money were concealed in the following 
manner: Dr. Albert procured various banks, where the German 
Government had accounts in his own and Bernstorff's name, to 
issue cashier's checks to the order of one Walter Lyon, a member 
of the former Wall Street firm of Renskorf, Lyon & Co. This 
firm in turn paid the money back to Lyon, who then transferred 
it to Rumely. We have the checks which figured in these various 
transfers. Subsequently and after the Mail began to decline as a 
money maker the Germans Tiad to come to its rescue and paid out 
more than $600,000, the money being paid to Rumely himself or 
to the S. S. McClure Newspaper Corporation, which he, Rumely, 
had organized for the purpose of the transactions referred to. 

•' 'In some of the financial transactions which crop up all 
through this case Dr. Albert drew the money in cash and de- 
livered it to the law firm of Hays, Kaufmann & Lindheim, then 
the attorneys of the German Embassy in this country, who took 
the cash to Renskorf, Lyon & Co., who in turn paid it over 
to Rumely. 

" 'In one transaction, which had come to our knowledge, 
$75,000 in bills was handled in the manner indicated. After 
receiving the money Rumely would draw his notes, making them 
payable to Lyon, these notes covering the transfers in money 
and pledged stock in the S. S. McClure Newspaper Corporation 
to secure the loans. 

" 'Now as to the Alien Property Custodian, Dr. Rumely in his 
report to the Alien Property Custodian made no disclosures of his 
relation with Albert or Bernstorff, or with the Imperial German 
Government. Instead he reported to Mr. Palmer, the Custodian, 
that he owed $100,000 on a note to Hermann Sielcken, an Amer- 
ican citizen, then resident in Germany, who subsequently died 
in that country, and he further reported to Mr. Palmer that the 
notes which he had given to Renskorf, Lyon & Co., accompanied 
by pledges of stock in the S. S. McClure Newspaper Corporation, 
had been surrendered to him in exchange for the $100,000 note 
in September, 1917. In other words, Dr. Rumely stated that by 



In America 91 

giving his note for $100,000 he had obtained a return of notes 
aggregating in excess of $1,300,000 and stock representing a con- 
trolling interest in the Evening Mail. 

" 'Rumely has claimed recently that it was the late Mr. 
Sielcken who put up the money in the transaction. Previously 
he stated that Mrs. Adolphus Busch of St. Louis had contributed 
to the fund. On her arrival in this country a few weeks ago 
Mrs. Busch stated that she had not contributed any of the money, 
and, furthermore, added that she had never heard of Rumely up 
to that time. I may also state that the Columbia Trust Com- 
pany, the executor of Mr. Sielcken, as well as Mr. Sielcken's 
former partners in the firm of Grossman & Sielcken, the coffee 
importing house, have informed us that, so far as they know, Mr. 
Sielcken was never concerned in these transactions.' 

"Attorney General Lewis in answer to a question as to whether 
the $1,3G1,000 which is involved in the transactions was cabled 
to this country for the purpose for which it was used, replied that 
it was all money obtained in this country through the sale of 
Imperial German Government war bonds. The bonds were sold 
to American citizens, in the great majority of instances citizens 
of German birth and extraction. One of the men who is said 
to have had a part in the sale of the bonds was Ru,dolph Hecht, 
the German banker and friend of the Kaiser, who is now in- 
terned as a dangerous enemy alien at Fort Oglethorpe, Ga. 

" 'In other words,' added the Attorney General, 'persons who 
are citizens of the United States provided the money, through 
the purchase of these bonds, which made possible the acquire- 
ment of the Mail for propaganda purposes by the Germans. Some 
of this money, I may add, found its way through G. Amsinck & 
Co., the firm which figured in the huge payments which were 
made to Bolo Pasha by Bernstorff, of which firm Adolph Paven- 
stedt, now interned, was then the head. This firm has since been 
reorganized.' 

"Assistant United States District Attorney Harper, who has 
assisted in the investigation as the representative of Attorney 
General Gregory, answered the next question, which was: 

" 'What was the editorial policy of the Mail which the Ger- 
mans mapped out after securing control?' 

" 'The investigation indicates,' replied Mr. Harper, 'that they 
favored not so much a pro-German as an anti-British policy. I 
think the files of the paper subsequent to the passing of owner- 
ship will indicate this to be the case. This policy covered the 
period between June, 1915, and February 3, 1917. After that we 
got into the war and its tone changed.' 

" 'What does Rumely have to say about all this?' 
" 'He still says that the money came to him from Sielcken.' 
"Mr. Becker resumed the narrative at this point. He ex- 
plained certain of the financial features of the case. 

" 'The total amount advanced for the first or purchasing pay- 
ment,' he said, 'was $740,000. This amount covered the shares 
and took care of the bonds of the Mail Company. By January 
of 1916 its working capital had been depleted, and it was up to 
Albert to come across and he did so. Between January 14, 191G, 
and February, 1917, more than $600,000 was paid to Rumely. 
The money was paid in various amounts, and as a rule in monthly 
payments. All of these payments were covered by notes, and 
on September 2, 1917, the notes given by Rumely aggregated 
$1,361,000 secured by a pledge of the stocks, the notes being pay- 



92 Propaganda 

able to Renskorf, Lyon & Co. and held by the law firm of Hays, 
Kaufmann & Lindheim. 

" 'Rumely by this time had given up the notes and the stock. 
That is they went out of his possession, and on September 27, 
1917, he delivered his own note for $100,000 to the order of Her- 
mann Sielcken and turned it over to Hays, Kaufmann & Lind- 
heim and got back all the stock in exchange for it. Rumely now 
has the stock and Hays, Kaufmann & Lindheim the note. It may 
be of interest to note that the face value of this stock is not more 
than $600,000. 

" 'Mr. Palmer, the Alien Property Custodian, called for a re- 
port from Rumely in October of last year, and on December 4 
Rumely filed his report, and in that report he stated, as I have 
already indicated, that on February 3, 1917, he purchased the 
stock for $100,000, the money being advanced by Sielcken.' 

" 'Does the German Government or the Kaiser as its head own 
the Mail at this moment?' Mr. Becker was asked. 

" 'To the best of our knowledge and belief that is the situation,' 
was the reply. 

" 'What about Henry L. Stoddard, the former owner of tt 
Mail and now the President of the publishing company, did he 
know the real ownership of the paper?' 

" 'We have every reason to believe that Mr. Stoddard was kept 
in ignorance of the real ownership. Mr. Stoddard owns the bonds 
of the company which are coming due in October, and we are 
informed that he threatened to foreclose those bonds if the paper 
was run in any way disloyal to the United States.' 

" 'How many payments did Albert and other representatives 
of the Kaiser make?' Mr. Becker was asked. 
" 'I should say about fifty.' 

"Mr. Becker then exhibited the original letter from Dr. Albert 
to the Equitable Trust Company asking for the issuance of a 
$350,000 cashier's check. This letter reads: 

" '45 Broadway, New York, May 27, 1915. 
" 'Equitable Trust Company, New York City. 

" 'Deae Sirs: Please issue your cashier's check for $350,000 in 
favor of Mr. Walter Lyon and charge the amount to the account 
of J. Bernstorff and myself. 

" 'H. Albert.' 
"The Equitable Trust Company replied by issuing the check 
for the amount asked on the Hanover National Bank, the date of 
the check being May 27, 1915. The check was endorsed by Lyon 
to the order of Renskorf, Lyon & Co. 

"On the same date, according to Mr. Becker, Dr. Albert wrote 
a letter to the Columbia Trust Company, in which he asked for 
a cashier's check for $200,000. The letter of application was 
worded the same as the one to the Equitable Trust Company. 
Also on May 27 two checks, one for $155,000 and the other for 
$5,000, were drawn on the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, 
completing the purchase price of $735,000, and also providing 
for the payment of the $5,000 commission. These checks were 
signed by G. Amsinck & Co. Amsinck & Co. have informed At- 
torney General Lewis that the letter of Albert's applying for 
these checks was returned to Dr. Albert. On June 1 the full 
amount of the purchase money was paid over to Rumely by Lyon." 

The exposure of this transaction was made just as this book was 
going to press, and it is impossible either to do it justice or to 



In America 93 

chronicle the further developments. An editorial in the New York 
Tribune of July 12, 1918, is worth quoting as a warning against 
taking too light a view of the case : 

"the invisible enemy. 

"There is a predisposition to be diverted by the thought that 
Germany was swindled in her efforts to buy public opinion in this 
country. She bought the Evening Mail and goodness knows what 
else, and spent millions for propaganda, and what good did it 
do her? Did it keep us from going to war with autocracy? 

"That is what many people are saying. It is the moral that 
some are accepting, even the New York World, which foretells 
that in the next edition of a well known book on popular delu- 
sions there will be a chapter on the gullibility of the German 
propagandist who thought by the liberal use of money to per- 
suade the American people against their own interests. 

"Which all goes to show how little people know about propa- 
ganda, especially German propaganda, and how like a virgin 
field to the first wheat sowers this country full of innocent news- 
papers must have seemed to the Kaiser's agents — Dernburg, von 
Bernstorff, Albert and other Huns. 

"The public mind to the trained propagandist is a pool into 
which phrases and thoughts are dropped like acids, with a fore- 
knowledge of the reactions that will take place, just as Professor 
Loeb at the Rockefeller Institute can make a thousand crusta- 
ceans stop swimming aimlessly about in the bowl and rush with 
one headlong impulse to the side where the light comes from, 
merely by introducing into the water a little drop of chemical. 

"We do not know how successful German propaganda has 
been in this country. We shall never know. But it is notorious 
that the German government's agents have shrewdly exploited 
internal distractions and disaffections. They have fanned the Irish 
question. They probably helped to finance the Sinn Fein row, which, 
by the way, stopped very abruptly when criminal prosecutions 
started. They have sought to inflame the negro in his grievance. 
They have helped revive the ancient feud between the A. P. A. and 
the Catholic Church. They have procured to be printed in American 
papers editorials that could be quoted in Mexico to prove the 
Americans perfidious in their intentions toward that country. 
They have widely and very adroitly suggested Japan to the 
American imagination in an extremely sinister light. They have 
sown dark thoughts against our allies, especially Great Britain 
and Italy. They have assisted to spread the capitalistic idea of 
war among the radicals. They have most efficiently sustained a 
large body of pacifist opinion in the country, disguised latterly 
as opinion for a diplomatic peace. 

"This is not to say that the German propagandist ever posi- 
tively originated anything. He is not so stupid. His business 
is to work with the elements, materials and conditions already 
existing and to shape and develop them scientifically. He did not 
invent the negro problem. He has only exploited it. So with 
everything. 

"And if by all these means together the sum of this country's 
war activities could be, or has been, retarded as much as one week, 
that achievement alone might have seemed to the German gov- 
ernment worth any amount of money. Who will say that our war 
programme is not three months behind what it might be? Who 



94 Propaganda 

will say how much of the delay has been owing, directly or in- 
directly, to the work of German agents in this country? 

"But that is only the obvious aspect. The most difficult part 
of the war is yet to come — at the very end, when peace terms are 
on the table. What would an organized power of suggestion in this 
country be worth to the German government at that time?" 



PROPAGANDA BY BOOKS. 

Books have been among the chief instruments of propaganda. 
In France the highly praised literary masterpiece translated into 
English as "Under Fire," by Henri Barbusse, proved to be useful 
for discrediting the French soldier because of its accounts of bru- 
tality and indifference in individual cases and mercilessly realistic 
descriptions of the hardships of trench life. 

This book was taken up eagerly by German propagandists, and 
it appeared on the lists of all the dealers in pro-G-erman litera- 
ture. 

German book dealers having been permitted to continue their 
activities, some of them have transacted business by wireless with 
book publishers in Germany, and smuggled their works into this 
country, or reprinted them on American presses for distribution 
throughout the United States and through South America. 

An example is the case of Bitter & Company, of Boston, im- 
porters of German books, and publishers of an alleged "History of 
the European War," written by an American, but actually a dis- 
torted falsification of every historical motive or event. The Post 
Office Department seized some of the publications of this house on 
their way to South Ameri:an countries; later, the evidence being 
more than sufficient, the warerooms were raided, and the head of the 
firm arrested; being of German birth and citizenship, and also a 
"eservist, he can be reached by the law. 

One section of shelves was frankly marked "Propaganda." 

The American author's "History" is an openly vicious assault 
on American honor and it has no end except to justify the worst 
deeds of Germany and slander the noblest deeds of the Allies. 
The only mention it makes of atrocities in Belgium, for instance, 
is that Belgian women gouged out the eyes of wounded German 
soldiers. The sinking of the Lusitania is dismissed as having 
caused "some excitement" owing to a "carefully worked-up feeling." 
A reader of this history who ' 'd no other information could only 
marvel at the brutality, cruelty and rapacity of Great Britain, 



In America 95 

France, Italy and the peculiarly vicious United States in attack- 
ing the innocent and peace-abiding Germans. 

The author for years conducted a department of military review 
in a daily paper. His tone was so blatantly offensive as to arouse 
protest. Later he modified his insults slightly but continued to be 
more insidious than ever in his comments. While protesting his 
loyalty when sober, in his drunken moods he toasted the Kaiser 
and denounced the President. 

He is typical of the newspaper and book propagandist. Many 
of the pro- German publishers disguise their attacks by carefully 
veiled expressions, and by inculcating doubt and distrust. 

Another favorite method is to surround their outrageous anti- 
Americanism with violent headlines of patriotic or anti-German 
tenor. 

^ Various sections of the country have so large an element of 
foreign and hostile population that their newspapers have dared 
almost every insolence; encouraged the resistance- to the draft, ridi- 
culed the Liberty Loan and War Savings Stamp campaigns, dis- 
seminated every possible scandal or slandered every public official. 

Newspapers in almost every language are published in this 
country. Many of them have shown unquestionable loyalty to the 
cause of their adopted nation; but numberless others have been 
subsidized to fight for Germany in every way, to stir up discontent 
among the soldiers and their parents and to propagate mutiny. 

Some of the newspapers in the foreign languages for a long 
while fought the cause of their Fatherland openly. Gradually they 
were coerced into disguising at least their contempt for the country 
of their residence and prosperity. Eventually it was found neces- 
sary to compel them to file an English translation of every article. 
Many of them were denied the mails. 

But these hindrances simply awoke the ingenuity of the propa- 
gandists, and it is only recently that the rising wave of public 
indignation has forced many of them into discontinuing publication 
altogether, or into adopting the English language. 

The silly fanatic who hisses the flag, shouts for the Kaiser, or 
awkwardly flaunts his pro-Germanism and is lynched, or painted 
yellow, or made to kiss the flag, is not the dangerous man, for 
he is plainly lacking in intelligence and even in discretion. 

The spy or propagandist will not so advertise himself, but will 
rather make an open show of Americanism, fly the flag, buy bonds 



96 Propaganda 

with ostentation and probably denounce the Kaiser. He can afford 
a small investment in an excellent security, and he is not eager to 
■court the wrath of the patriots about him, for he thus destroys his 
own tisefulness. 

He will rather work by means of the various tools at hand, 
and endeavor to drop the poison of doubt or fear into the cup of 
public enthusiasm. 

PROPAGANDA BY FILM AND DRAMA. 

The motion picture offers' him a most inviting medium for 
propaganda. It appeals to a vast public, even to those who can not 
read. In the course of a dramatic or melodramatic story, he can 
carry across to the audience the most dangerous messages. Any- 
thing that presents our cause or that of our Allies in a bad light, 
■exerts just so much power in the Kaiser's favor. 

An instance of the methods employed' in film propaganda is the 
case of Eobert Goldstein and "The Spirit of '76." This was a 
Eevolutionary story and so innocent as he presented it to the Board 
of Censors that they passed it without suspicion. 

Once they had approved it, he caused to be inserted about 1,500 
feet of matter carefully prepared. This represented scenes in the 
■old prison ships and showed British keepers treating American 
prisoners with fearful brutality. A British soldier was represented 
as impaling a baby on a bayonet and whirling it around his head ; 
other as shooting women, dragging American girls away by the 
hair. 

The one result of such scenes would be to awaken ancient 
Iiostilities against our Ally. The picture was quickly and properly 
suppressed. Investigation of the producer revealed his German 
motive and support. The name of Franz Bopp, the German consul 
involved also in the Hindu conspiracy, appeared also here as one 
who had offered to give financial backing to the picture. 

The manufacturers of the film asked that it be returned to 
them, after its seizure under search warrant under title XI of the 
Espionage Act, but Judge Bledsoe, of the United States District 
Court, Southern Division of California, Southern Division, refused 
the motion. His ruling is so eloquent a statement of both the 
wrong and the right spirit in such a situation that it is quoted 
entire : 

"The facts developed in this proceeding show that this photo- 
play, 'The Spirit of '76,' attempts to portray some of the more 



In America 97 

important phases of the American War for Independence, and 
special scenes, like Paul Revere's Ride, the signing of the 
Declaration of Independence, and the like, are given particular 
mention and prominence. In addition — and these are the parts 
of the film inveighed against — scenes purporting to illustrate the 
Wyoming Valley Massacre are shown. A British soldier is pic- 
tured impaling on a bayonet a baby lying in its cradle and then 
whirling it around his head so impaled. Other unspeakable 
atrocities committed by British soldiers, including the shooting^ 
of harmless women, the dragging off, sometimes by the hair of 
the head, of young American girls, and so forth, are exhibited. 

"Because of adverse criticism and objection, before the sched- 
uled initial performance a private exhibition of the picture was 
had, attended by divers local and governmental representatives. 
At this performance none of the objectionable features above 
mentioned were shown, and in consequence no open objection to 
the proposed run of the play was voiced. Immediately following- 
this preliminary presentation, though, the director, Goldstein, 
inserted into the film in appropriate places the scenes of the 
Wyoming Massacre just referred to and proceeded to show them 
at the ensuing evening performance. This he did, he says, 'to 
excite the audience' and attract greater attention to his produc- 
tion. 

"The film is owned by a corporation, but seems to be and to 
have been managed by Goldstein, the man who wrote the scenario 
and who has 'produced' the picture. As is usual in such cases, a 
good many thousands of dollars, probably in excess of a hundred 
thousand dollars, have been expended in the work of such pro- 
duction. 

"I have listened very carefully to the statement of Mr. Scott, 
counsel for the stockholders in the film company, and I sympa- 
thize with them for having made an investment in this film with 
no knowledge of its true character. The various stockholders, 
of course, I do not know, and, in consequence, can not know 
their attitude toward the presentation of this film. I have given 
careful consideration to the suggestion made by counsel with 
respect to the possibility and even probability of financial losses 
inuring to the stockholders, and perhaps of some considerable 
consequence. Bearing all this in mind, however, and assuming 
that you and your associates are going to suffer some consider- 
able loss, this court at this time is in no mood to weigh the 
financial losses of a few individuals as against possible detriment 
to the United States of America. If it be that some will have to 
suffer loss, yet it is only a financial loss, and, at worst, will be 
only a fractional part of the loss that others are going to have 
to suffer — some even of their lives — because of the war in which 
we are now engaged. 

"History is history, and fact is fact. There is no doubt about 
that. At the present time, however, the United States is con- 
fronted with what I conceive to be the greatest emergency we 
have ever been confronted with at any time in our history. 
There is now required of us the greatest amount of devotion to 
a common cause, the greatest amount of co-operation, the great- 
est amount of eflTiciency, and the greatest amount of disposition 
to further the ultimate success of American arms that can be 
conceived, and as a necessary consequence no man should be per- 
mitted, by deliberate act, or even unthinkingly, to do that which 
will in any way detract from the efforts which the United States 
is putting forth or serve to postpone for a single moment the 



98 Propaganda 

early coming of the day when the success of our arms shall be 
a fact and the righteousness of our cause shall have been dem- 
onstrated. 

"We are engaged in a war in which Great Britain is an ally of 
the United States. It is a fact that we were at war with Great 
Britain during the Revolutionary times, and whatever occurred 
there is written upon the page of history and will have to stand, 
whomsoever may be injured or hurt by the recital or recollection 
of it. But this is no time, in my judgment (this is the thought 
that controls me in this matter), whatever may be the excuse, 
whether it be a financial return or otherwise, for the exploitation 
of those things that may have the tendency or effect of sowing 
dissension among our people and of creating animosity or want of 
confidence between us and our allies, because so to do weakens 
our efforts, weakens the chance of our success, impairs our 
solidarity apd renders less useful the lives we are giving to the 
end that this war may soon be over and peace may soon become 
a thing substantial and permanent with us. I am in no mood, 
either, particularly after having listened to the testimony of this 
man Goldstein, to consider the suggestion that the film be re- 
turned and so much of it be permitted to be exhibited as has not 
met with special obiection. 

'It is a fair inference from the circumstances, considering 
the hearing had in Chicago, the objections then made, the lan- 
guage used in characterizing its scenes of atrocity as being 
'reprehensible' and as evidencing 'malice,' that the disposition 
and purpose of the whole play in its deeper significance is to 
incite hatred of England and England's soldiers. And it is not 
at all necessary that it should be shown to have such effect; it 
is enough if it is calculated reasonably so to excite or inflame 
the passions of our people or some of them as that they will be 
deterred from giving that full measure of co-operation, sympathy, 
assistance and sacrifice which is due to Great Britain simply be- 
cause of the fact that Great Britain, as an ally of ours, is work- 
ing with us to fight the battle which we think strikes at our very 
existence as a nation. 

"Ordinarily the exploitation of such harmless, in one sense, 
highly inspiring in another sense, scenes as Paul Revere's Ride, 
which is one of the most beautiful things in history, could not 
be detrimental or distasteful to anybody. Ordinarily it could 
be put on in such a way as to be a source of unending delight and 
gratification to any man, be he American or be he English — but 
that is not the point. There are interspersed in this play those 
things which tend to appeal to the passions of our nature, which 
tend to arouse our revenge and to question the good faith of our 
ally Great Britain and to make us a little bit slack in our loyalty 
to Great Britain in this great catastrophe or emergency. There- 
fore, as I say, this is no time or place for the exploitation of that 
which, at another time or place, or under different circumstances, 
might be harmless and innocuous in its every aspect. It is like 
the 'right of free speech' upon which such great stress is now 
being laid. That which in ordinary times might be clearly per- 
missible, or even commendable, in this hour of national emer- 
gency, effort and peril may be as clearly treasonable and there- 
fore properly subject to review and repression. The constitu- 
tional guaranty of 'free speech' carries with it no right to subvert 
the purposes and destiny of the nation. 

"In addition, this man, by his own admission, knew that these 



In America 99 

things — the bayoneting of the babe and the like — had been se- 
verely criticised and were inhibited. He knew that objection had 
been made to them. He knew just as well as he knows we are 
sitting here now that the private presentation of this film on 
last Tuesday morning was for the purpose of seeing if there was 
anything objectionable in it. To fit it for such private presenta- 
tion it was gone over by him with a fine-tooth comb, no doubt; 
but immediately thereafter a sedulous effort was indulged in by 
him to insert those things which would tend to 'excite' and to 
create a prejudice against Great Britain. This demands an in- 
quiry into the ultimate motives and purposes of this man, and 
no doubt justifies other and different action against him. But in 
any event, referring to the special problem now before us and 
considering only the harm now to come to us, I feel that I can 
do no less than to say that so far as it is within the power of 
this court, this thing has got to stop. 

"I have no disposition, of course, to confiscate anyone's prop- 
erty. There may come a time and place where this play, devoid 
of some of its horror, which never ought to be in it at any time, 
and devoid of its immorality, which is and ought to be shocking 
to any man who possesses a respectable quantum of decency in 
his make-up — devoid of those things, the time may come when it 
could be put on, and put on entertainingly and refreshingly be- 
fore an audience of American people. The fact is, however, that 
the film is of such a character that it can be used to our national 
disadvantage in time of national emergency, and this can not be 
allowed. If the result be to bring a loss upon those who are 
financially interested, so be it. It is merely a loss they must sus- 
tain because of the unwisdom they have demonstrated in trust- 
ing their financial affairs to one who possesses such a slight modi- 
cum of appreciation of the eternal fitness of things as does this 
man who is presenting and claiming the right to present this 
picture at this time. 

"The motion for the return of the film will be denied without 
prejudice. It will be held in the possession of the marshal until 
such time as, under changed conditions, it may properly be pre- 
sented, and the district attorney is directed to prepare for the 
court a warrant for the seizure of the original, which is within 
the jurisdiction of this court, as shown by the testimony given 
here, and that will be put in the same place and kept under the 
same surveillance." 

In a play recently produced, a Belgian girl having taken refuge 
in England, was outraged by an English officer, who married her 
eventually in order to legitimitize her child. The purpose of such a 
drama could only be to counteract the horror of the world against 
the atrocities in Belgium. The concidence was not strange that 
the playwright had changed his name from one of German origin 
to one of English sound. 

Public sentiment has grown so ardent that such efforts to in- 
fluence it are likely to meet with short life and vigorous rebuke. 
A safer course is to encourage and finance those factions of the 
native population that are always against the Government, or have 



100 Propaganda 

some personal grievance or crusade, so important in their eyes that 
the winning of the war is of minor importance, or war itself inde- 
fensible on any grounds. 



CHAPTER V. 
COOPERATING AGENCIES. 

It would be hysterical and ridiculous to blame or credit Germany 
or German inspiration with all of the difficulties put in the way 
of a successful prosecution of the war. Some of the most danger- 
ous elements have no love of Germany, and even include her among 
their detestations. But whoever, for whatever motives, frustrates 
or diminishes the maximum efficiency of the machinery for execut- 
ing the will of the nation in this war, has the hearty support of 
the enemy agencies. Sooner or later, almost without fail the in- 
vestigation discloses among the moving spirits a person of hostile 
proclivities. 

But the nativity of the agent is not the important thing. The 
■enemy of the country is he who does his bit against our victory. 

RELIGIOUS PROPAGANDA. 

The vast majority of religious people in America are revolted 
by the disasters Imperial Germany has brought upon civilization 
in her blood-thirst, ruthlessness and land-lust, and not least of all 
in her protestations of divine sanction and holy purpose while de- 
stroying cathedrals, convents and holy places. 

But nearly all of the creeds have had adherents who adhere 
also to Germany and who have carried their opposition to our suc- 
cess under the cloak of religion. 

The pastors ■ of some churches have retained their Prus- 
sianism and rivalled the amazing pulpit utterances of the German 
preachers who have proclaimed that the Kaiser is a Messiah and 
the German people divinely selected instruments to spread God's 
own Kultur among the vile heathen. In America some of the 
alien clergymen have thought it better policy to preach the 
beauties of peace and non-resistance. We thus see the clerical 
propagandists blowing both hot and cold. Fire and sword are sancti- 
fied to the Kaiser, but they are diabolic in America. 

With these partisans a large number of American clergymen 
have collaborated more or less unconsciously. A Prussian clerygman 
said that the lives of all the Belgians and French were not import- 
ant compared to the life and safety of one German soldier. The 
Rev. John Haynes Holmes, of ISTew York, stated in a sermon re- 
printed in "The Finished Mystery :" "The war itself is wrong. Its 

101 



L02 Propaganda 

prosecution will be a crime. There is not a question raised, an 
issue involved, a cause at stake, which is worth the life of one blue- 
jacket on the sea, or one khaki coat in the trenches." 

An American clergyman in Berkeley, Cal., actually stated that 
he had a vision in which the German Crown Prince appeared to 
him, mounted on a white horse and wearing a helmet, and carrying 
a sword. This meant that the Germans would win the war; also 
that an angel would pass through and destroy those persons having 
flags or Eed Cross cards in their windows. 

It is not surprising, however regrettable, that in this same city 
a church was burned to the ground because the pastor and the 
elders refused to permit the singing of the National Anthem. 

Two other typical instances of pulpit propaganda by American 
clergymen may be cited from the multitude of reports: 

The pastor of a church at Mount View, Mo., is reported by a 
fellow minister as having said in a sermon that "the Eed Cross 
was a fake, that men were getting rich out of it;" and then, as if 
to lend a semblance of truth to this view, added "that there was 
a lady who had knitted a sweater for her son and sewed up a $20 
bill in' the side pocket, and a few days afterwards she saw an 
acquaintance wearing the sweater, and asking permission to exam- 
ine the sweater, found the money in it." 

He also said in his sermon "It was an outrage to send our boys 
across the water to be butchered." 

A clerygman of Lexington, Ky., during a sermon delivered on 
the 9th of June, 1918, remarked that the ruler of this nation was 
hellish and that war was the result of the hellish machinery that 
was being put into operation; all the army boys that got killed 
would go to hell. He also advised his hearers not to obey the draft 
act, for war was literal hell and that Wilson was as rotten as the 
Kaiser is represented to be. He also maintained that he would 
preach this doctrine even if arrested and sentenced to prison for 
twenty-one years, and the only grace that he would ask of his pro- 
secutors would be an extension of the sentence to ninety-nine years. 

The sermons of the Rev. John Haynes Holmes have been elo- 
quent appeals for peace and strong denunciations of bloodshed and 
war. They are so eloquent that, as has already been stated, the 
Germans have paid them the ironic compliment of tying them to 
toy balloons and floating them across the British and French lines. 

It is perhaps only a coincidence, yet a striking one, that the 
point chosen bv the Germans for bombardment bv the Holmes 



Cooperating Agencies 103 

sermons was the British Fifth Army. The sermons were scat- 
tered March 9 ; on March 21 the first great offensive started, and 
the Fifth Army gave way with disastrous result to the whole line. 
Various explanations have been offered for the collapse, ranging 
from the thinness of the line to the flaccidity of its morale. In 
any case the sermons denouncing all resistance as vicious must 
have had an influence that cost the Allies dearly in lives, territory 
and prestige. 

A more striking proof of the actiial influence of such preach- 
ments could not be imagined. They have no effect whatever on the 
enemy that started the war and wages it ruthlessly. He sends 
them across to our soldiers in the hope that they may convert a 
few American or British soldiers into abetting the further con- 
quests of Germany. 

CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS AND ""DIVINITY STUDENTS." 

"Eeligious opposition to war represents one of the most per- 
plexing and delicate phases of the whole situation," according to 
an eminent jurist. "The Selective Service Act takes the individual 
conscience into account. The thing that is unjustifiable during 
the war is the organized and deliberate creation of conscientious 
objection that did not genuinely exist before." 

This and other Governments have long respected the tenets 
of the Friends or Quakers, but there can be little patience with 
their hasty and fraudulent imitators. The book relating the ex- 
periences of the Quakers who persuaded President Lincoln to 
exempt this society from the draft, has, of course, been reprinted 
a,s a form of propaganda for distribution among the soldiers. 

From Oberlin, Ohio, a number of publications have viciously 
attacked the right of the nation to compel its citizens to pay military 
taxes as well as income, revenue, school and other taxes. 

Mrs. Catherine Tingley, head of the Theosophical Institute at 
Point Loma, CaL, was interested in military matters until our entry 
into the war and the passage of the conscription act. Then she 
visited Washington and endeavored to get her adherents exempted 
as "divinity students !" 

Many such efforts to scurry to cover have been made by various 
sects formed or adapted for the purpose, and so-called "conscientious 
objectors" have sprung up on all sides to dignify their cowardice or 
their anti-Americanism bv the white-feather name of conscience. 



104 Propaganda 

To yield to these alleged religious objectors would be a reductio 
ad absurdum. This country reluctantly passed the conscription 
act because it felt compelled to by the unfortunate experiences of 
England, and by the magnitude of the crisis. Conscription is gen- 
erally recognized as the fairest method of managing the resources 
of the country. 

Now that the conscription act is law, it miist be enforced; for 
it is manifest that should everybody be allowed to gain exemption 
on the claim of conscientious objection, only those would be drafted 
whose consciences forbade them to desert their country in her time 
of trial. The draft law might as well not have been passed, there- 
fore, since it would bring into the service only those who would 
have volunteered anyway. 

It was to avoid the evils, dangers and delays of the volunteer 
system that the conscription law was passed. It must be rigorously 
applied and those whose motto is "Conscience Above Country" must 
be taught that governments can not be run by the consciences 
of individuals, but by the conscience of majorities and their repre- 
sentatives. 

""the finished mystery."" 

Under this strange banner a group of strange persons have 
waged a peculiarly vicious \yar by propaganda, and compelled the 
Government to prosecute an organization wearing the innocent 
name of the International Bible Students Association. 

The late "Pastor" Eussell had, before his death, secured an 
enormous following for the doctrines contained in his sermons, 
which were at one time published in as many as four thousand 
newspapers simultaneously; and in his books, of which it is said 
eleven million copies were sold. His books were called "Keys to the 
Divine Plan of the Ages." He wrote six volumes, the seventh and 
final remaining unwritten at his death. He left the sect of Rus- 
sellites in a very flourishing condition and possessed of large assets, 
not the least of which was a great market for another volume of the 
Studies of Scripture. A Brooklyn attorney, J. F. Rutherford, suc- 
ceeded to the control and with his associates put forth the seventh 
volume of the series, under the name of "The Finished Mystery," 
pretending that it was inspired, if not written, by Pastor Russell. 
In this book, under the guise of religion, they inserted a vast 
amount of rabid pacifism and made vicious attacks on the present 
war. 



Cooperating Agencies 105 

Rutherford and the others were not content with selling the 
volume to the Eussellites, but began to push its circulation every- 
where, especially among groups of soldiers. So eager were they 
for the spread of its doctrine that when the book was declared to 
be in violation of the Espionage Law they continued its distribu- 
tion. 

The most surreptitious methods were adopted to circulate this 
forbidden writ; slipping it into the mail boxes at night, sending 
it in carload shipments by freight to a given point with covert 
instructions to agents to remail it — matter already declared in 
violation of the Espionage Law; publishing under different titles 
and in capsule form the most offensively disloyal poisons of propa- 
ganda already ordered suppressed by the Department of Justice; 
instructing its Bureaus to make use of this same seditious stuff in 
all their lectures, because they would be immune as members of a 
religious cult, and escape the punishment surely closing in on them. 

This sedition is contemptible enough, but its magnitude and 
the false cant with which it appeals to devout dupes, gain a military 
importance for two reasons : First, that many disciples claim exemp- 
tion on the ground of their religious profession, second, that the book 
has been foisted with the most determined persistence and cunning 
upon men already in uniform, to whom it could only be meant to 
appeal as an argument for mutiny and desertion. 

"The Finished Mystery" is warmly defended by The Kingdom 
News, a periodical issued by the same people with the same motives. 

Whatever one may think of these doctrines as doctrines, it is 
manifest that their spread at this time has only one influence — 
to destroy military efficiency. Russell's successor, Rutherford, 
who has added to his activity as a publisher the busy life of a 
lecturer under the name of "Judge Rutherford of the New York 
Bar," was finally brought to the bar. 

His propaganda had been strongly supported by the Germans, 
and is involved in the disturbance of Italy, where the so-called 
Onofrio letter was widely distributed. 

The following account (from the New York Times, May 9, 
1918) of Rutherford and five associates gives details of their 
activities: 

"Charged with spreading doctrines calculated to promote un- 
rest and disloyalty among the men of the army and navy, six 
leaders of the International Bible Students Association, which 
was founded by the late 'Pastor' Charles T. Russell, were arrested 

(5) 



106 Propaganda 



yesterday afternoon in Brooklyn by United States Marshal James 
M. Power. 

"The arrests were made at the 'Bethel,' the heatiquarters of 
the society, at 122 Columbia Heights, and among the men taken 
into custody was ex-Judge Joseph F. Rutherford, who is said 
to be the successor of 'Pastor' Russell as the head of the organiza- 
tion. The sextette were saved from going to the city prison for 
the night through a swift real estate transaction, by which one 
of the members of the association became temporary title holder 
to property of the society, enabling him to give bonds for the 
prisoners. 

"The Federal Grand Jury indictment, under which Ruther- 
ford and his associates were arrested, charges them with 'un- 
lawfully and wilfully conspiring to cause insubordination, disloy-' 
alty and refusal of duty of the military and naval forces of the 
United States.' When arraigned before Judge Garvin in the United 
States District Court the accused all pleaded not guilty. Besides 
Rutherford, they were William E. Van Amburgh, A. Hugh Mc- 
Millan, Robert J. Martin, Frederick H. Robinson and Giovanni 
De Cecca. The first four named were held in $5,000 bail each, 
and the other two in $2,000 each. 

"There are four counts in the indictment, all charging dis- 
loyalty. Rutherford, McMillan, Van Amburgh and Martin are 
also charged with having sent money to a representative of the 
association in Germany. These funds, $500, deposited in the 
name of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society in the Nassau 
National Bank, Manhattan, are said to have been withdrawn on 
November 7 last and sent by draft to Barmen, Germany, through 
Zurich, Switzerland. 

"The indictment was based largely upon matter published in 
the Watch Tower and Kingdom News, publications issued by the 
society, and 'The Finished Mystery,' a work by the late 'Pastor' 
Russell. The magazines contain letters written from Italy and 
having to do with the trial in that country of a member of the 
International Bible Students Association for making defamatory 
remarks about military service. 

"Through their activities in lending encouragement to paci- 
fists and conscientious objectors, members of the Russell organi- 
zation have gotten into trouble in several cities in this country 
and in Toronto, Canada. Some time ago representatives of the 
United States Government visited the headquarters in Brooklyn 
and took away copies of the various publications of the society. 
On Sunday, April 29, while the Russellites were holding services 
in their tabernacle, in Hicks street, Brooklyn, a speaker for the 
Liberty Loan who entered was refused permission to address 
the assemblage. Later members of the police reserve visited the 
temple on the same mission and received a like reception. As the 
Russellites filed out of the tabernacle the loan boosters pleaded 
with them to purchase bonds, but to no purpose. Some days later 
it was announced that eighteen members at the Bethel had sub- 
scribed for bonds. Mr. Rutherford, the head of the Society, has re- 
peatedly denied that the association had ever attempted to spread 
German propaganda. Leaves from the May number of the King- 
dom News, which have been distributed by hand in Brooklyn in 
the last few days, contain a severe denunciation of the 'autocratic 
Kaiser' and his 'blood-thirsty hordes.' 

"It was said by former members of the Bible Association, the 
Watch Tower and Tract Society and other organizations founded 



Cooperating Agencies 107 

by the late 'Pastor' Russell that many members had withdrawn 
their membership after the death of the first leader, because 
they disapproved the methods and the management of some of 
the new officers. An antagonism toward the new leader began 
immediately after his selection, and it was said that much of 
the dissatisfaction was caused by the methods of the election 
and of a campaign preceding the choice of a 'pastor.' It was 
said that in the last few years, and particularly since the death of 
'Pastor' Russell, the aims and ideals of the associations had been 
changed so completely that many persons who supported the 
tenets of the first leader found themselves completely out of sym- 
pathy with the movement. This split in opinion, it was said, also 
caused a great decrease in the congregation at the Brooklyn 
Tabernacle, where 'Pastor' Russell delivered most of his ser- 
mons." 

One of the developments of the trial was the indictment of 
the secretary of the Watch Tower and Bible Tract Society for 
perjury and his committal to jail for contempt of court because 
he stated that he could not identify the writing of a fellow defen- 
dant who had a desk a few feet away from him for eighteen months. 

"Testifying that he 'would have been one of the first men in 
the country to volunteer' if he had not been a 'consecrated Chris- 
tian,' Joseph F. Rutherford defined his position on the war on the 
witness stand. 

" 'My ambition when a boy was always to be a soldier,' Mr. 
Rutherford said, 'but one cannot follow the Lord Jesus and take 
human life. I have never been in opposition to the draft, because 
the draft was covered by an act of Congress, and I think we 
ought to obey the law. I am opposed to war for consecrated 
Christians, however.' 

"Rutherford testified also that the 1,800 war affidavits sent out 
by William B. Van Amburgh, treasurer of the Watch Tower Bible 
and Tract Society, were intended only to establish the fact that 
the International Bible Students Association was a religious or- 
ganization. 

" 'We did not take time to investigate the requests that came 
to our office for these affidavits,' said Rutherford, who is president 
of the Watch Tower, 'because they merely represent the position of 
our organization- on the question of war. The mere possession 
of one of our affidavits would not be sufficient to prove that the 
holder was a member of our society and therefore entitled to 
exemption on the ground of religious objection. The affidavits 
were printed to assist local boards to classify men properly.' 

"Federal Judge Harland B. Howe made a ruling that settled 
conclusively the question of defense on religious grounds. 

" 'The Constitution only protects a man's religious beliefs,' said 
the judge in answer to a statement of the counsel for the defense 
that 'the Constitution guarantees, religious freedom.' 

" 'Ignorance of the law is no excuse and religious belief is no 
defense to crime. This will be the rule of the court when charg- 
ing the jury.' 

"The result of the trial was the conviction of all the de- 
fendants. Seven of the eight were sentenced by the judge 
to serve twenty years in prison on each of the four counts 



108 Propaganda 

in the indictment against them. This would make a term of 
eighty years in all for each convict, but the judge decided that 
the sentence might run concurrently, so that the prisoners can 
look forward to their release as if they had been sentenced to but 
one term of twenty years. 

"Of the eighth man convicted, Giovanni De Cecca, director of 
the translation of the works of the Russellite organization into 
the Italian language, Judge Howe said he would defer sentence 
for further consideration, as the court desired to have his pre- 
vious career investigated. 

" 'In the opinion of the court,' said Judge Howe, 'the religious 
propaganda which these defendants have vigorously advocated 
and spread throughout the nation, as well as among our allies, is 
a greater danger than a division of the German Army. If they 
had taken guns and swords and joined the German Army the 
harm they could have done would have been insignificant com- 
pared with the results of their propaganda. A person preaching 
religion usually has much influence, and if he is sincere he is all 
the more effective. This aggravates rather than mitigates the 
wrong they have done. Therefore, as the only prudent thing to 
do with such persons, the court has concluded that the punish- 
ment should be severe. The sentence is that the defendants serve 
a term of twenty years in the Federal penitentiary at Atlanta, 
Ga., on each of the four counts of the indictment, but that the 
sentences commence and run concurrently, and that they stand 
committed until the sentence is complied with.' 

"Turning to ex-Judge Oeland, the special United States prose- 
cutor, and referring to the eight convicted Russellites, Judge 
Howe said: 

"'They are worse than traitors. You can catch a traitor and 
know what he is about. But you cannot catch a man who does 
what they did under the guise of religion." 

There is a special reason for taking such persons in hand legally. 
Not only must the people be protected from them, but they must be 
protected from the people, who will take measures of their own if 
the law does not proceed. On April 23, at Pendleton, Ore., a 
Eussellite named Metz was saved with difficulty from being lynched 
for circulating pamphlets in defense of "The Finished Mystery." 
His case and many others revealed a concerted move on the part of 
the International Bible Students Association to flood the country 
from Texas to the Pacific Coast simultaneously with circulars. 

Propaganda by religion is peculiarly dangerous because it mas- 
querades in the holiest vestments and it subjects those who would 
expose it and punish it to the easy charge of sacrilege. 

Efforts have been made to extend tolerance to those who have 
genuine religious convictions against war, by offering them non- 
combatant service, such as the Quakers have been usually willing to 
perform. But there have been numbers of drafted men who have 
refused to wear the uniform at all or to obey any commands. If 
they were not dealt with rigorously the whole principle of universal 



Cooperating Agencies 109 

service would fall to the ground. It has gone hard with those who 
have been led to" reject the Government's tender of peaceful tasks. 

On June 10, in San Antonio, Texas, a court-martial imposed 
sentences of life imprisonment upon forty-five conscientious ob- 
jectors who had refused to wear army uniforms. The sentence 
was reduced to twenty-five years each by Brigadier General J. P. 
O'lSTeil, who reviewed the records. The men are nearly all from 
Oklahoma and members of the Mennonite faith. Some of the Men- 
nonites have refused to bear arms but donned the uniform and 
accepted work in non-combatant units. The men who were tried 
refused to put on the uniform and refused to work in any capacity 
connected with the army. And more than this, they were trying 
to do missionary work among men who were not conscientious 
objectors. 

They were doubtless moved to the latter course by persons who 
informed men "whose rights were being invaded" that there was 
a lawyer in a nearby town who would take up their cause. The 
men in the camps probably were emboldened by the support which 
they were getting from pacifist and pro-German societies, and so 
they took the course which led to their undoing. 

The activities of these pacifist and pro-German organizations, 
especially their "literary" activities, were early called to the atten- 
tion of the Intelligence Officers in the camps. The aim of these 
societies was not so much to help conscientious objectors as to 
weaken the army, a fact proved virtually conclusively by the ascer- 
tained knowledge that the American Civil Eights Bureau and an- 
other organization or two are simply children of the parent organ- 
ization. The American Union Against Militarism. The connection 
between these organizations and the conscientious objectors in the 
camps was established definitely. It was shown almost beyond 
peradventure that the result of the activities of these societies would 
be an effort on the part of men who received their communications to 
attempt to influence non-conscientious objectors. The final court- 
martial action was the logical conclusion of the efforts of certain 
organizations and certain men to hurt the cause of the United 
States and help that of the Germans. 

PHILANTHROPIC SLACKERS.. 

Hardly less dangerous are certain organizations which, while 
claiming no religious authority, do assume to be, and often are. 



110 Propaganda 

actuated by the noblest motives of philanthropy, of universal broth- 
erhood, of internationalism and of the beauty of peace. 

In the first place their benevolence is shared by a far larger 
number of people than they seem able to imagine. The fiercest 
warriors are quite as likely to hate war as the most white-livered 
non-resistants. The best soldiers are generally those who fight 
with regret for causes more sacred than peace or comfort, or life 
itself. Just as tender-hearted philanthropists are found among 
the soldiers, among the stretcher-bearers, the surgeons, the Bed 
Cross and the charity organizations, as among the believers in peace 
at all costs. 

Before a nation enters war, especially a free nation like ours, 
there must be a great enthusiasm among a fair majority. Once 
the nation is committed to war, anything that hinders its complete 
efficiency has one of two effects : It delays the final victory at enor- 
mous cost of bloodshed aud treasure, or it helps to a defeat with all 
that means of wasted life and ruined liberty. 

Viewed in this light these hostile philanthropists are seen to 
be 'less high-minded. They are found to be stubborn, bigoted, 
ruthless to those who oppose them; sticklers for lesser privileges 
and chiefly anxious about the welfare of the enemy and of their 
fellow slackers. Worse yet, they become the facile tools of the 
enemy's agents and propagandists. They ally themselves with the 
most vicious enemy and their success is his. 

They make a special effort to spread their doctrines among our 
soldiers, and our camps are under an incessant bombardment of 
pamphlets, circulars, books, periodicals, letters. Any soldier whom 
they win over becomes a disease-carrier and spreads the poison. 

In the face of the German Government's menace to civilization 
these people plead with Americans to defy their own government 
and defend the sacrosanctity of such rights as they would have in 
times of bucolic peace. They cry aloud that the one danger to 
civilization is that Americans should attempt to defend it, or ask 
any sacrifice in its name. 

Persons who despised and denounced the Constitution before 
the war now point to it as the Ark of the Covenant. While the 
ship is driven toward the rocks they implore the sailors not to obey 
the Captain. In the name of liberty they call for mutiny. 

One example among thousands is a circular for which five per- 
sons were tried under the Espionage Act in Philadelphia in June, 
1917. A few excerpts are characteristic : 



Cooperating Agencies 111 

LONG LIVE THE CONSTITUTION OP THE UNITED STATES. 
WAKE UP, AMERICA, YOUR LIBERTIES ARE IN DANGER. 

"The thirteenth amendment, section 1, of the Constitution of 
the United States says: 'Neither slavery nor involuntary servi- 
tude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall 
have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or 
any place subject to their jurisdiction.' 

"The Constitution of the United States is one of the greatest 
bulwarks of political liberty. It was born after a long, stubborn 
battle between king rule and democracy. We see little or no dif- 
ference between arbitrary power under the name of a king and under 
a few misnamed 'representatives.' In this battle the people of 
the United States established the principle that freedom of the 
individual and personal liberty are the most sacred things in 
life. Without them we become slaves. 

"For this principle the fathers fought and died. The estab- 
lishment of this principle they sealed with their own blood. Do 
you want to see this principle abolished? Do you want to see 
despotism substituted in its stead? Shall we prove degenerate 
sons of illustrious sires? 

"A conscript is little better than a convict. He is deprived of 
his liberty and of his right to think and act as a free man. A 
conscripted citizen is forced to surrender his right as a citizen and 
become a subject. He is forced into involuntary servitude. He 
is deprived of the protection given him by the Constitution of 
the United States. He is deprived of all freedom of conscience 
in being forced to kill against his will. 

"Are you one who is opposed to war and were you misled by 
the venal capitalist newspapers, or intimidated or deceived by 
gang politicians and registrars into believing that you would 
not be allowed to register your objection to conscription? Do 
you know that many citizens of Philadelphia insisted on their 
right to answer the famous question 12 and went on record with 
their honest opinion of opposition to war, notwithstanding the 
deceitful efforts of our rulers and the newspaper press to prevent 
them from doing so? Shall it be said that the citizens of Phila- 
delphia, the cradle of American liberty, are so lost to a sense of 
right and justice that they will let such monstrous wrongs 
against humanity go unchallenged? 

"Do you want to see unlimited power handed over to Wall 
Street's chosen few in America? 

"Write to your Congressman and tell him you want the law 
repealed. Do not submit to intimidation. 

"Help us wipe out this stain upon the Constitution. 

"Help us re-establish democracy in America. 

"Remember, 'eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.' 

"Down with autocracy. 

"Long live the Constitution of the United States. Long live 
the Republic. 

"In lending tacit or silent consent to the conscription law, in 
neglecting to assert your rights, you are (whether unknowingly 
or not) helping to condone and support a most infamous and In- 
sidious conspiracy to abridge and destroy the sacred and cher- 
ished rights of a free people. You are a citizen, not a subject. 
You delegate your power to the officers of the law to be used for 
your good and welfare, not against you. 

"Will you stand idly by and see the moloch of militarism 



112 Propaganda 

reach forth across the sea and fasten its tentacles upon this con- 
tinent? Are you willing to submit to the degradation of having 
the Constitution of the United States treated as a 'mere scrap of 
paper?' 

"Do you know that patriotism means a love for your country 
and not hate for others? Will you be led astray by a propa- 
ganda of Jingoism masquerading under the guise of patriotism? 

"In the world crisis where do you stand? Are you with the 
forces of liberty and light or war and darkness?" 

It is not surprising to find that the accountable authors of this 
hysterical outburst wear German names. The infamous pretences 
that this is a Wall Street war, an insidious trick to filch the people's 
liberties away, a step toward reducing the republic to slavery, are 
intolerable. Their influence on the minds of soldiers homesick 
and weary of camp drudgery is hazardous and the cloven hoof of 
the propagandist is always revealed, for the defendants in this case, 
as in most of the others, were found to have included in their pro- 
ceedings an appropriation for the printing and mailing of these 
circulars to "men who have passed the exemption board." The 
plain purpose was to cause "insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, 
refusal to obey orders or forcible resistance to the recruiting and 
enlistment service." 

Similar documents are issued by the so-called "intellectuals," 
who profess a mentality superior not only to the emotions of patri- 
otism but even to the necessity for a defense of democratic liberties. 

Furthermore these persons by organizing and proselytizing 
draw to themselves people of no such spiritual character, who find 
them a convenience. They speedily degenerate into common scolds 
and general nuisances. They use up public time and energy and 
keep throwing "sand in the gear box." 

If they are not fanatic they will consent to postpone their 
ambitious projects until the country has freed itself from its 
perilous embarrassments. If they are fanatic, they should be 
treated as other madmen are, with gentle but perfect restraint. 

The final reasons for their suppression are that it is impos- 
sible for the overworked public officials to discriminate between 
them and the counterfeit organizations of the enemy; that it is 
impossible to pause to separate the too virtuous from the vicious; 
and that they are altogether too warmly supported by the partisans 
of our enemy. 

The danger of giving tolerance to these movements is well empha- 
sized in the following editorial in the New York Times of May 1, 
1918, based upon the Bonnet Rovge affair already discussed: 



Cooperating Agencies 113 

"There is a warning for Americans in the story of the Bonnet 
Rouge treason, and in the ramifications of it. France was pois- 
oned with pacifist propaganda conducted through newspapers, 
which preached the horrors of war and the desirability of nego- 
tiating a peace with Germany. These papers were circulated 
not only among civilians but among soldiers — especially among 
soldiers. They bore an appearance of good faith, and they had 
patriotic names and were blatantly pretenses of patriotism; but 
always there was the subtle suggestion which was intended to 
do the poisonous work. Probably there were many honest 
Frenchmen who said: 'Of course these men are wrong, but no 
doubt they are sincere and every man is entitled to his opinion.' 

"But they were not sincere. They were actually in the pay 
of Germany. The first proof came in the arrest of Duval, the 
business manager of one of these newspapers, on his way back 
from Switzerland with a check for over $30,000. This and many 
other checks he had received from a German banker named Marx 
for the purpose of paralyzing French efficiency with his sancti- 
monious talk of peace, and Marx was the agent of the German 
Government which paid Duval's newspaper alone more than 
$200,000. 

"These methods are peculiarly suggestive of the methods of 
Americans who have been doing the same kind of work on this 
side of the water. The method is to excite distrust of France's 
allies, to harp on the old national grudges. It is the same 
method which was used in Italy last year with such success 
as to bring about the defeat of Cadorna's army. If any Americans 
can read this story without seeing the close similarity of what 
went on in France last year to what has been going on in Amer- 
ica without hindrance ever since the war began, they must be 
singularly lacking in the ability to draw obvious conclusions." 

PROPAGANDA AMONG THE LABOR ORGANIZATIONS. 

The military importance of labor is self-evident. Without an 
enormous, incessant and reliable manufacture of ships, munitions, 
equipment, uniforms and supplies of every sort, it is impossible to 
maintain an army abroad at all. On the extent and steadiness of 
the labor element the success of the armies is dependent. 

In general, the laborers, both organized and unorganized, have 
given magnificent support to the cause, and have generally post- 
poned their problems till after the war, except in certain instances 
•where the great increase in the cost of living has compelled some 
wage adjustments. 

There have been, however, among laborers as among all other 
classes, certain individuals and certain factions that have refused 
to subordinate their ideals or their theories to the general emer- 
gency. 

The most conspicuous instance of this has been the Inde- 
pendent Workers of the World. Investigation has shown that this 
organization has much to be said in its justification and that its 
opponents have often been guilty of brutality, indifference, and 



114 Propaganda 

contempt of both law and humanity. The Department of Justice 
has prosecuted those persons in Arizona who carried out the forcible 
deportation of I. W. W. members and it is of the utmost import- 
ance that the present emergency should not be manipulated as an 
excuse for oppression or reaction. The profiteer and the tyrant 
are also enemies of the country and are not above slandering the 
better elements of the I. W. VV. 

The I. W. W. is made up of human beings of various sorts and 
is neither so noble as its sponsors pretend, nor so vile as its oppo- 
nents maintain. Great and laborious accomplishment are to be 
credited to some of its members, but others have undoubtedly 
devoted themselves to evil works. The proof is overwhelming that 
many of the leaders are men of the most hopeless anarchism to- 
ward all manner of government; that they have allied themselves 
with the irreconcilables of every sort from the literary dreamers 
to the illiterate vagrants, that they have advocated not only resist- 
ance to the most liberal shop rules, but destruction in the most 
heinous forms. 

The much advertised creed of sabotage justifies not merely the 
neglect of the tasks for which men are paid, but the ruination 
of machinery and the destruction of shops even at the risk of the 
lives of fellow workers. Some of them carry their gospel of hatred 
so far that they advise their members to burn their blankets, empty 
sugar bowls into coffee and trample bread into the ground in the 
pure love of mischief. In Charleston, S. C, June 11, 1918, a 
16-year-old boy of German extraction was found guilty of placing 
bits of nails in a pneumatic drill. He was sentenced to four years 
in the is^ational Training School for Boys. 

Some of the I. W. W. indulge in the most wholesale denuncia- 
tions of every form of human society, and denounce this republic 
as a tyranny worse than any other. A few of them include the 
Kaiser amongst their diatribes, but others cordially wish him 
success. It is certain that the pro-German elements have found 
the I. W. W. an instrument made to their hand and have wielded it 
with disastrous effect upon the output of the forests, the farms, 
the mines, and the factories, and upon the transportation systems. 

Our Government is of the people, by and for the people, a Gov- 
ernment of majorities with many checks upon their tyranny over 
the minority. The logical and convenient method for changing 
any sc^cial detail is to persuade the majority. As soon as the ma- 
jority is convinced, the change is easily made. As long as the ma- 



Cooperating Agencies 115 

jority is opposed to an innovation, the effort to force it on the public 
by violence or by underhanded methods is an effort against free- 
dom and not for it. The I. W. W. presents therefore a dilemma 
and a contradiction in its own terms. 

Among its membership perhaps the majority are innocent of 
treason in any form, but all too many have made a ruthless effort 
to defame the spirit and paralyze the military power of the nation 
in this war. Many who are not downright well-wishers of Ger- 
many are such ill-wishers to this republic that they amount to 
allies of our enemies. 

ANARCHIST PROPAGANDA. 

American citizens generally believe that the United States is 
a free country, and that whenever its restrictions prove irksome, 
they can be removed by the people themselves acting along certain 
well-established lines of procedure. 

But there are many persons and groups of persons who are not 
satisfied with democratic institutions or with the means for modify- 
ing them. These persons believe, or at least assert, that the United 
States Government is a despotism that must be destroyed. They 
said it before the war. They say it with even more violence now 
that the Government had to subject the people to some of the rigors 
of war in order to protect its liberties. 

The Anarchists denoimce this republic in the same terms they 
used against the Czardom of Eussia at its absolute height. 
They would cheerfully destroy all authority in this Government, 
even though the result might be the substitution of a German 
autocracy for the present democracy ; even though they have before 
them the terrible example of Eussia under the heel of Germany 
as a result of the relaxation of its discipline. 

Their object is to undermine this Government by any means. 
They succeed somehow in securing funds for the publication of 
propaganda and in finding agencies to distribute it broadcast. 
Many Anarchistic publications are issued throughout the world. 
In the United States they are issued surreptitiously in many lan- 
guages. Their violent words go hand in hand with violent deeds, 
destruction, death and terrorism. 

Numerous headquarters have been raided and many publica- 
tions seized, but their activity does not cease and they continue to 
seek and to find ways to evade the postal laws and the recent agree- 
ment of the express companies to carry nothing forbidden in the 
mails. 



116 Propaganda 

The latest example of Anarchist publications was disclosed in 
the newspapers of May 15, 1918, from which is quoted the following 
account of the capture of unusually ambitious propaganda: 

"A nation-wide anarchist plot, the purpose of which was se- 
cret agitation in all parts of the country against the United 
States Government and the spreading of Bolshevist propaganda 
was frustrated yesterday when the police, following an investi- 
gation that has been under way several weeks, arrested Ivan 
Novikoff, a Russian writer, who is said to be employed by the 
Uova Mir, the paper with which Leon Trotsky was connected 
when in this country; Leon Bobkin, and Alexander Burkach. 

"The new anarchist group, which is of Russian origin, v. ants 
to spread its pro^paganda through the secret circulation of a 
monthly magazine called Eolokol which in English means The 
Bell. The first issue of this paper was printed last week, and 
more than 30,000 copies are said to have been ready for dis- 
tribution by express and messenger to Chicago, Boston, and 
other cities. 

"Many other arrests, it was said, would probably follow, the 
authorities being in possession of the names of several thousand 
persons in various parts of the country who are believed to be 
active sympathizers and supporters of the new group. The men 
under arrest will be turned over to the Federal authorities this 
morning. They are held at Police Headquarters charged with 
entering into a conspiracy to overthrow the Government of the 
United States. It was said last night that this may prove to 
be a case that will call forth the most drastic action permitted 
by law. 

"In the basement of the building occupied by the Russian 
paper Nova Mir, at 113 East Tenth Street, Lieutenant George 
Busbee of the Bomb Squad, who directed the investigation, found 
3,000 copies of Eolokol. David Goldfleld, editor of Nova Mir, 
was summoned to police headquarters yesterday afternoon and 
examined at length by Lieutenant Busbee and agents of the 
Federal Government. 

" 'We have information,' said Lieutenant Busbee, 'that Novi- 
koff, Durkach, and other anarchists have been conspiring to start 
an agitation in the United States, the brazen purpose of which 
was nothing less than the overthrow of our Government and 
the establishment of a reign of terror. Of course, they never 
had a chance, even if the conspiracy had not been nipped 
before it could even get started. We have a long list of per- 
sons who have given financial support to the movement, the 
money being contributed to pay for distributing anti-American 
propaganda throughout the country. The man Novikoff edited 
the first issue of the paper, while Durkach was intrusted with 
the work of getting the financial backing. Bobkin appears to 
have been a more or less ignorant tool of the other two.' 

"To circulate the paper the anarchists packed the copies in 
boxes which were labeled as containing canned goods, lemons, 
and dried fruits. Several of these boxes were taken to ex- 
press offices, where they were seized by the police. 

"Lieutenant Busbee said the arrests were the most impor- 
tant since the taking of Emma Goldman and Alexander Berk- 
man, both of whom are followers of the Russian anarchistic 
group, and both of whom are now serving terms in Federal prisons. 

" 'The evidence shows,' said an agent of the Department of 



Cooperating Agencies 117 

Justice, after he had glanced over a copy of Kolokol, 'that a 
more dangerous group of anarchists has never operated in this 
country. This propaganda not only calls for the overthrow of 
our Government, but it also seeks to poison the very souls of 
the people. For instance, one of its objects is to create dis- 
sension among the working people and to hold up Government 
war work through a campaign to keep men from working over- 
time and to bring about strikes not only in private but in 
Government works as well. There are a great many Russians 
employed in shipyards and munition plants, and should those 
men refuse to work overtime you can easily imagine what it 
would mean to our ship program and other war efforts.' 

"Some of the cities which the new group selected as propa- 
ganda centers were Cleveland, the center of the Great Lakes 
shipping industry; Detroit, the center of the automobile indus- 
try, and also one of the principal centers for the production of 
airplanes; Pittsburgh, in the steel area; Wilkesbarre and other 
coal centers; San Francisco, Tacoma, Baltimore, Boston, Phila- 
delphia, and scores of other leading cities in every part of 
the country. 

"The first page of the first issue of Kolokol bears the offi- 
cial motto of the group, which is taken from the writings of 
the Russian anarchist, Bakunin, and which when translated 
into English reads: 

" 'The spirit of destruction is the spirit of reconstruction.' 

"An editorial on the second page says that 'This paper starts 
as a monthly journal,' and that the backers of it 'fully realize 
the responsible and difficult task confronting us.' 

" 'Long live anarchy! Long live social revolution! For- 
ward, comrades. Down with Government! Down with sepa- 
rate property! Long live national self-determination, equality, 
and fraternity,' the editorial concludes. 

"In another part of the Bell, which is sixteen pages in size 
and printed on the finest newsprint paper, it is stated that 
'before the war freedom existed in the United States,' but the 
writer adds that it has disappeared now. 

"On page 14, under the caption 'The Damnable Trinity,' it 
is written: 

" 'Make one big stride, and you shall be free. Free in broth- 
erhood and in equality. Eliminate private property, and over 
the heads of Government and law organize free and independ- 
ent self-governing communes.' 

"In another part of the paper is this reference to patriotism 
in the schools: 

" 'It is self-evident that schools as well as other institutions 
did not remain untouched as before the war. In the schools 
they, with all their intrigue, endeavor to inject patriotism into 
the children. Out of them now they are trying to make mental 
degenerates, organizing humoristic troupes, or coercing them 
under the obligation of the loan. And these very children who 
fail to do this are persecuted and not taught, kept without din- 
ner, are given bad marks, and their parents threatened. 

" 'Always bad for the workers in the plants and factories at 
all times, but now more so, if the worker is not a patriot. If 
he does not buy Liberty loans there is no place for him, no 
work, and he is thrown out to starve. He is blacklisted and 
persecuted. For this kind of worker it is hard to find a job, 
because the bosses demand from him most of the time refer- 
ence from their place of employment.' " 



CHAPTER VI. 

PEOPAGANDA BY DISSENSION". 

The attempt to set up internal conflict in our country finds 
endless opportunities. One familiar method is to call this a rich 
man's war; another is to say that the wealthy are making vast 
profits while the poor go hungry; or to say that the rich men's 
sons are slackers while the poor men's sons do the fighting; or to 
claim that labor is being crucified — all these are meant to cause a 
feud between capital and labor. No phrase seems too contemptu- 
ous for some of these critics, who can see nothing more in our ideals 
and the liberties we are fighting for than what one of them summed 
up in a sneering epigram as "A Government of the people by the 
rascals for the rich." 

There are numberless ways of attacking an army from the rear. 
It is vulnerable in the munitions works, the flour mills, the ship 
yards, the barbed- wire and shoe factories, the wheat fields or in the 
spruce forest at the extreme distance. 

To cause strikes, sabotage or discontent in any of the multi- 
tudinous industries on which a modern army relies, has exactly the 
same efliect on its success as to bombard it with shrapnel, for it 
accomplishes the same result of removing from the fighting strength 
just so many effectives. And an enemy wins not by the total of its 
enrollment, but by the total of its effectives. On all sides the 
Germans endeavor untiringly to foment strikes. Propaganda is 
the ideal means for creating labor unrest. 

Soldiers can not be effective nowadays unless they are supplied 
with the best and most accurate weapons, unlimited stores of am- 
munition and perfectly equipped reserves, whose numbers, morale 
and traiiiing enable them to enter the battle at its crisis with a de- 
cisive effect. The side that has the final reserves after the bloody 
cancellation of the engagement is the side that wins. 

The charge that this is a war for the capitalists has something 
more than an academic interest. To convince one soldier in the 
firing line or on the way to it, or in a training camp, that the cause 
for which his life is put in jeopardy is an unworthy cause in which 
he has no personal interest; that he goes, indeed, not as a warrior 
defeiidiiig his own liberties, but as a driven slave upholding tyrants 
118 



By Dissension 119 

who use hirn for their own ends, is to rob that one soldier of every 
impulse to endure hardship, to respect discipline, to face death 
rather than surrender. It is to make a mutineer of a possible hero, 
to plant in the ranks a source of corruption, to place in a post of 
responsiliility one who would rather surrender than fight, rather 
shoot his own officer than the enemy, and rather run home than 
charge forward. 

Assuming that the men in the trenches are all convinced of 
the , righteousness of their mission and that they fight for their 
own pride of freedom, they will none the less speedily lose heart 
if they imagine that they are not supported at home; if they find 
themselves left without ammunition; if the gaps that death makes 
in their ranks are not filled. They feel themselves abandoned and 
betrayed. 

The bravest and most efficient soldier refuses to waste himself 
in futile attacks. Everything that diminishes his pride in his uni- 
form and his feeling that he gains respect from it is a blow at his 
morale. There is no more outrageous treason than that which in 
editorial, speech and cartoon represents the soldier as a hireling, 
or as an oppressor of labor and an enemy of liberty. 

PROPAGANDA AMONG FRIENDLY ALIENS. 

To create distrust and confusion among our native soldiery, 
being a constant aim of the propagandist, he naturally supplements 
this WO] k by the effort to stir up dissension among the loyal for- 
eigners. 

Pobnd, for example, has no cause to love Germany, and thou- 
sands of Poles have volunteered to fight against her. There are 
about 35,000 Poles in our army. They have been distracted by many 
papers in their own language endeavoring to convince them that 
they are mistreated. These papers were owned or subsidized by 
German or Austrian interests. They and their followers spread 
slanders on America, on patriotic Polish leaders, and generally 
aim to scatter dissension. 

What is true of the Poles is true of nearly all the other foreign 
born populace, the Bohemians, Hungarians, Italians, Greeks and 
the others. No sooner does a group of loyal aliens organize than 
every member of it and every leader is subjected to a campaign of 
the most vicious propaganda. 



120 Propaganda 

PROPAGANDA AMONG THE NEGROES. 

Unending attempts are made to render the American negroes 
resentful and disloyal. In the early part of the war, emissaries of 
Germany traveled about with the ambition and the hope of raising 
negro insurrections throughout the South. 

The newspapers as late as April 12, 1918, described the attempt 
in New York City as follows : 

"German agents, Federal authorities have reason to believe, 
have sought to transform the negro sections of the city into a 
'hinterland' for the propagation of false and morale-effecting 
rumors. These concerned the tens of thousands of colored men 
who wear the uniform of Uncle Sam. 

"Aa fertile fields for their work they selected the region 
about 'San Juan Hill,' on the middle West Side, and the 'black 
belt' of Harlem. Both sections have recently been alive with re- 
ports of mistreatment of negro troops. 

"According to Emmett J. Scott, special assistant to Secretary 
of War Baker, the rumors have been to the effect: 

"(1) That in the American expeditionary forces only negroes 
will be used as 'shock' troops. 

"(2) That negroes abroad are severely abused by their offi- 
cers. 

(3) That the Germans have threatened to torture to death 
all negro soldiers captured in battle. 

"(4) That there are now at Columbia Hospital (Base No. 1, 
New York City) two hundred negro soldiers with their eyes 
gouged out and arms cut off by Germans, the idea being that 
after the Germans get through with them they are sent back to 
the American lines and shipped home. 

"These reports have been so malignant that leaders among 
the New York negro colony have been conducting a quiet inves- 
tigation to ascertain their genesis. One of the investigators is 
Dr. E. P. Roberts, of No. 130 West One Hundred and Thirtieth 
street. He said yesterday: 

" 'Certain saloons in my section run by men of German birth 
or extraction seem to be the central rumor factories. Here 
negroes who, perhaps, have relatives in the United States service 
are told Germany is bound to win the war. They are also told 
that Germans think a lot of the colored people, who are better 
treated in German East African colonies than anywhere in the 
world. 

" 'It is the old propaganda by which Germany sought to in- 
fluence the Hindus and the Jews.' 

"Dr. Roberts and Fred R. Moore, editor of the New York Age, 
said it had been impossible to trace the rumors to any specific 
individuals. 

"Eugene K. Jones, executive secretary of the National League 
on Urban Conditions Among Negroes, at No. 2303 Seventh avenue, 
said: 

" 'The Kaiser's agents will find Harlem an unfertile field for 
enemy propaganda.' 

"Denying the rumors as ridiculous and untrue, Special Assist- 
ant to the Secretary of War Scott yesterday pointed out that there 



By Dissension 121 

were now more than 1,000 negro commissioned officers in the 
United States army. He added: 

" 'To meet isolated cases of alleged mistreatment of colored 
soldiers by white officers in camps and cantonments, Secretary 
Baker ordered a special investigation on November 30, 1917, and 
has continued to order such reports investigated whenever they 
have come to the War Department. Wherever there has been 
ground for the charge of mistreatment, official responsibility 
therefor has been fixed. The guilty officer or others responsible 
have been discharged from the service or adequate punishment 
inflicted.' " 

There has none the less been a certain amount of unrest created 
among the negroes. Its German significance is seen in the case 
of an ex-preacher employed on camp construction, who was heard 
telling his fellow laborers that he would like to see the Kaiser 
destroy some of our cities, civilize Americans and rule over the 
whole world. 

An officer of the Military Intelligence Branch, who has made 
a special study of this field, contributes the following estimate of 
the situation : 

"Unrest among colored people has continued to increase, and 
while the interposition of German agents may be traced in indi- 
vidual cases, the causes of unrest are more fundamental. 

"For many years two schools of thought have existed among 
the colored people of the country; one represented by Booker T. 
Washington, which placed emphasis on the need of individual train- 
ing and the development of economic power among negroes in 
order that they might compete economically with the white men; 
the other represented by W. E. B. DuBois, which emphasized agita- 
tion for political and civil rights, and which insisted that no amount 
of industrial training would obtain these rights without such agita- 
tion. Since the death of Dr. Washington and the racial ferment 
caused by the European war, it may be stated that virtually every 
colored man has, to a certain extent, reacted against the theory 
of compromise and conciliation represented by Dr. Washington, 
and all are in favor of a more radical agitation for civil and political 
rights. Through two hundred colored newspapers and numerous 
negro conventions; through churches, fraternal organizations and 
individual discussions, this idea has reached large masses of colored 
people. The movement was independent of German interposition 
and would have continued along these lines even if we had not 
declared war against Germany. 

"As a result of this movement, virtually for the first time in 
American history large masses of colored people have realized and 



122 Propaganda 

resented the discriminations directed against their race. They 
have been particularly moved by the contrast between the imme- 
diate punishment of the thirteen negro soldiers guilty of connection 
with the Houston riots, who were executed without public notice 
of their conviction, and the freedom from punishment of the thou- 
sands of white people responsible for the lynching of over three 
thousand negroes in the last forty or fifty years. At the time of 
the execution of the thirteen negroes, many of the colored school 
teachers of Washington wore bands of crape on their arms, and as 
the lynchings have continued — over two hundred colored people 
have been lynched since the declaration of war against Germany — 
the resentment has increased. 

"As a result of this condition, colored people everywhere are 
discussing their inferior status with a detachment never before 
known to them. If you Avere to travel across the continent 
and visit colored .homes all along the way, you would not find one 
in which such questions as these were not being calmly debated : 
'Why should colored people take an interest in this war? Why 
should they fight to make the world safe for democracy abroad, 
when it is neither democratic nor safe for them here ? What differ- 
ence would it make to the race if this country was under the 
dominion of Germany instead of the Southern white man?' These 
questions imply no disloyalty, but simply a new attitude of inquiry, 
and the birth of a critical spirit among twelve million American 
citizens. 

"As a result of this new attitude, every detail of discrimination 
which was formerly taken for granted, is now being subjected to 
a new scrutin}^, is repeated over and over, and becomes exaggerated 
as a result of such repetition. The following case will indicate the 
spread of such details : 

"Several months ago, through a number of sources, it was 
learned that many colored people were convinced that a number 
of colored soldiers had been returned from France in a horribly 
mutilated condition, and that they were in local hospitals, some 
with their eyes gouged out, others with their tongues cut out; also 
that colored troops abroad were given the most dangerous positions, 
were neglected when wounded, and left to die on the ground. A 
number of the leading colored people were taken to the hospitals 
mentioned and were shown that these rumors were unfounded, 
and that the few colored soldiers in the hospitals were what 
the surgeon described as "not even interesting cases." The local 



By Dissension 123 

colored community was satisfied and the rumor cleared for a while. 

"In a short time, however, a similar report crept out elsewhere. 
The information reached us that the colored maids, in fact, the 
whole colored population, of a suburb near New York were com- 
pletely demoralized by a report of the ill treatment of the colored 
troops abroad. The Military Intelligence Branch cabled to Gen- 
eral Pershing and received a definite and explicit report from him 
by cablegram, showing that the rumor was not only unfounded, 
but that most of the colored troops were not in actual service, and 
only a handful had been wounded in action. This information 
was spread through the press, and a temporary quietus was given 
to the rumor by it. 

"But recently a report has crept out again from another source : 
The wife of a colored captain was informed from ten different 
sources that her husband had been badly wounded and was in a 
hospital in Washington, although no report of his wounds had 
been officially sent to her. This, of course, turned out to be a false 
rumor, but the point is that this rumor appeared and reappeared 
in different places. As soon as disposed of and quieted in one 
place, these rumors reappear in some other place in about the time 
it would take for such rumor to reach a distant point. They 
weaken seriously the morale of the colored people, and in so far 
as they weaken the morale of twelve million people of the best 
possible fighting material, they must be given serious consideration 
by military authorities." 

PROPAGANDA BY RUMOR. 

The m-ost dangerous influence of all perhaps is one that can 
hardly be traced to its origins. It is the process of creating an 
atmosphere, preparing a soil in which all manner of noxious weeds 
breed of themselves and spring up on all sides almost overnight. 
Once started they are almost impossible to uproot. The most 
innocent persons unconsciously contribute to the spread of these 
plagues and punishment of the guilty is prevented by their multi- 
tude. 

It has been shown how victorious Italian armies were turned 
into f agiiive mobs by the powers of rumor. So whole populations 
can be discouraged in the hour of success or buoyed up in times 
of despair by gossip skillfully managed. 

The baleful power of rumor has always been recognized, but 
under the modern name of propaganda it has gained an enormous 



124 Propaganda 

increase of power both for good and evil, because of the enormous 
increase of facilities. 

Everybody reads and writes, and the postal service is of vast 
proportions. The telephone, telegraph and cable systems bring the 
remotest ears within access of the whispers of gossip. The news- 
papers go into every home and make the whole world one neighbor- 
hood. By their generous use of the wire-service, long articles may 
be made to appear simultaneously at almost every breakfast table 
in the land. 

Thus while scientific and mechanical progress go on enlarging 
the scope of our daily life, and giving everything a cosmopolitan 
significance, at the same time they are making the world more and 
more one town. We are all neighbors, and at the mercy of one 
another's tongues. 

It is in no sense a mere bit of rhetoric but an absolute fact that 
any diminution soever of the maximum power and enthusiasm 
of a nation at war has a direct and perilous military effect. 

The person, therefore, who by any means keeps one soldier from 
the front or who mars the perfection of his efficiency has done 
exactly what the open enemy in the opposite trench does when 
he kills one of our soldiers. Indeed, he has done yet more, for 
he has left that enemy free to spend that bullet in the killing 
of another soldier. 

In a country so large as ours, and so far removed from the 
seat of war, propaganda becomes almost the only weapon with a 
long enough reach to be effective. The extraordinary extent of 
the circulation of newspapers and magazines in America gives this 
weapon an unlimited range. 

PROPAGANDA BY CARTOON AND ESSAY. 

Though the vast majority of American writers and artists 
have devoted their abilities with great ardor to the cause of their 
country, there have been a few satirists who have been unable to 
respond to the crisis, and have preferred to devote their abilities 
to interfering with the success of the war. 

A small group of these was concerned in the cooperative pub- 
lication of a paper of small circulation called The Masses. The 
Postmaster of New York having finally forbidden the mails to the 
August, 1917, issue under the Espionage Act of June 15, 1917, 
an injunction was sought to restrain him. 



By Dissension 125 

The Postmaster had fortified himself with an opinion from the 
Judge Advocate General of the Army, who stated that "the neces- 
sary effect of the issue of this August number would be to cause 
insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, and refusal of duty in the 
naval and military forces of the United States, and that it would 
obstruct the recruiting and enlistment service of the United States." 

The U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New 
York granted a temporary injunction on July 26, 1917. The Post- 
master took an appeal and the U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals, 
Second Circuit, reversed the injunction. 

The opinion handed down contains an important account of the 
methods and aims of this school of propagandists and their relation 
to the principle of the freedom of the press, the law and many 
precedents being freely quoted, and the Court holding that "The 
Espionage Act, in so far as it excludes from the mails certain mat- 
ters declared to be unmailable, is constitutional." 

From this decision, issued as Bulletin No. 7 by the Depart- 
ment of Justice, the following description of the objectionable mat- 
ter is quoted : 

"The objectionable matter was contained in the August issue, 
and consisted of certain articles. These were entitled 'A Ques- 
tion,' 'A Tribute,' 'Conscientious Objectors,' 'Friends of American 
Freedom.' Besides these articles there were four cartoons which 
were also objected to. These were entitled 'Liberty Bell,' 'Con- 
scription,' 'Making the World Safe for Capitalism' and 'Congress 
and Big Business.' 

"The article 'A Question' idealizes those who resist the con- 
scription law and it represents them as heroic. In saying that the 
law violates sacred rights and is contrary to liberty and that those 
who refuse to submit to it are heroes it incites disobedience to 
the^ statute. 

"The poem entitled 'A Tribute' represents as martyrs worthy 
of admiration two notorious persons who had just been convicted 
under an indictment charging them with conspiracy to induce 
persons not to register under the conscription act. It reads in 
part as follows: 

"Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman 

"Are in prison tonight.' 

"But they have made themselves elemental forces. 

"Like the water that climbs down the rocks, 

"Like the wind in the leaves, 

"Like the gentle night that holds us, 

"They are working on our destinies; 

"They are forging the love of the nations. 
"The statement that these two individuals have made them- 
selves elemental forces akin to the rocks and trees and rivers, 
under ordinary circumstances would be harmless, but coming at 
this particular time and after their conviction, the inference 
being that their greatness grows out of their offense and that 



126 Propaganda 

they are worthy of admiration and honor, is equivalent to saying 
that their unlawful conduct is worthy to be followed. 

"The article, 'Conscientious Objectors,' refers to a number of 
letters written from English prisons by conscientious objectors. 
These letters are printed in the same issue of the magazine, and 
the article recommends those in this country who intend 'to 
stick it out to the end' (resist conscription to the end) to read 
thoroughly the letters. 

"The article, taken as a whole, may well be regarded as in- 
tended to encourage objectors to be as steadfast protestors against 
'government tyranny' as their English comrades. In other words, 
it is an encouragement to disobey the law. 

"The Article 'Friends of American Freedom' is devoted to 
Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman, already commented 
upon in this opinion as having been convicted of a conspiracy to 
induce persons not to register. The article pays them 'tribute 
of admiration for their courage and devotion.' There is an allu- 
sion to the fact that Berkman and Goldman had advocated in 
their paper. Mother Earth, that those liable to the military draft 
who do not believe in the war should refuse to register. The nat- 
ural effect of it is to encourage those who have objections to war 
not to register as the conscription act requires. Admiration of 
conspirators convicted of the offense of seeking to defeat the 
operation of the conscription act is equivalent to an approval of 
their crime and an encouragement to others to disobey the law in 
like manner. 

"In considering the cartoons we may observe that political 
cartoons have long been used as a very effective means of political 
propaganda. They were so employed in France during the French 
Revolution and in England as early as the days of Walpole. In 
this country they were used during the Revolution, in the War 
of 1812, and in the Civil War. The brilliant cartoons of Nast 
satirizing the Tweed ring in the city of New York were conceded 
at the time to have exerted a powerful influence in the destruc- 
tion of that corrupt combination. A cartoon may be a leading 
article. It has been described as 'a leading article transformed 
into a picture.' It can express ideas as lucidly and clearly as 
printed words, and there is no escape from legal responsibility 
because pictures rather than words are used. 

"In the cartoon entitled 'Liberty Bell' the Liberty Bell is pre- 
sented in a broken form. The idea meant to be conveyed may be 
that there is no such thing as liberty left in the United States. 
But whatever it means, taken by itself, it would afford no ground 
for exclusion from the mails. 

"The cartoon entitled 'Conscription' portrays a youth lying 
across the mouth of a cannon with his arms chained to the wheels 
of the gun carriage. 'Democracy,' in the form of a nude 
woman, is tied by her extended arms and her crossed 
feet to a wheel. And 'Labor,' crouched down on a gun carriage, 
a pitiable object, is fastened in like manner. A woman is on her 
knees on the earth at- the side of the cannon in utter despair, 
with her head bent back and her arms uplifted, while a child lies 
neglected at her side. The counsel for the complainant admits in 
his brief that this cartoon 'is a powerful argument against the 
conscription law. It says, in effect, that the youth of the land 
are by it forced into military service; that the law binds labor 
to military service as well; that it causes great agony and suffer- 
ing to the womanhood of the country, and that the mothers of the 



By Dissension 127 

country with children too small to be subject to the "draft" pray 
to God that the draft law may be repealed before their children 
come to military age, and that democracy is trampled under 
foot by such a law. That is what this picture says.' But that 
is not what it says to us. It seems to us to say, 'This law mur- 
ders youth, enslaves labor to its misery, drives womanhood into 
utter despair and agony, and takes away from democracy its 
freedom.' Its voice is not the voice of patriotism and its language 
suggests disloyalty. 

"If counsel wished the court to understand that in his opin- 
ion the effect of the cartoon would not be to interfere with en- 
listment, we are not able to agree with him. That it would 
interfere and was intended to interfere was evidently the opinion 
of the Postmaster General. And this court can not say that he 
• was not justified in his conclusion. 

"The cartoon 'Making the World Safe for Capitalism' shows a 
Russian absorbed in studying a paper marked 'Plans for a Gen- 
uine Democracy.' On one side of him Japan and England appear 
in a threatening attitude and on the other Mr. Root and Mr. 
Russell, members of the commission sent by the United States to 
Russia, appear in the guise of advisers. Mr. Root has in his hands 
a noose labeled 'Advice,' with which it is intended to entrap or 
choke to death the Russian democracy. The court can not say 
that the Postmaster General was not warranted in concluding 
that this cartoon was intended to arouse the resentment of some 
of our citizens of foreign birth and prevent their enlistment. 

"In the cartoon 'Congress and Big Business' Congress is rep- 
resented by a disconsolate individual who is ignored by a number 
of overdeveloped men of big business gathered around a table 
inspecting a large paper spread over it and labeled 'War Plans.' 
Congress is quoted as saying: 'Excuse me, gentlemen, where do 
I come in?' 'Big Business' replies: 'Run along now! We got 
through with you when you declared war for us.' This cartoon 
is intended to stir up class hatred of the war and to arouse an 
unwillingness to serve in the military and naval forces of the 
United States. The clear import is, if the war was brought on 
by 'big business,' then let 'big business' carry it on and let labor 
stand aloof. The court cannot say that the Postmaster General 
was clearly wrong in concluding that it would interfere with 
enlistments. 

"That one may willingly obstruct the enlistment service with- 
out advising in direct language against enlistments, and without 
stating that to refrain from enlistment is a duty or in one's inter- 
est seems to us too plain for controversy. To obstruct the recruit- 
ing or enlistment service within the meaning of the statute it is 
not necessary that there should be a physical obstruction. Any- 
thing which impedes, hinders, retards, restrains, or puts an 
obstacle in the way of recruiting is sufficient. In granting the 
stay of the injunction until this case could be heard in this 
court upon the appeal, Judge Hough declared that 'It is at least 
arguable whether there can be any more direct incitement to 
action than to hold up to admiration those who do act. Oratio 
ohligua has always been preferred by rhetoricians to oratio recta; 
the beatitudes have for some centuries been considered highly 
hortatory, though they do not contain the injunction "Go thou 
and do likewise." ' With this statement we fully agree. More- 
over it is not necessary that an incitement to crime must be 
direct. At common law the 'counseling' which constituted one 



128 Propaganda 

an accessory before the fact might be indirect. (See Wharton's 
Criminal Law, 11th ed., sec. 266.) 

"Bishop lays down the rule thus: 

" 'Every man is responsible criminally for what of wrong 
flows directly from his corrupt intentions. * * * If he awoke 
into action an indiscriminate power, he is responsible. If he 
gave directions vaguely and incautiously, and the person receiv- 
ing them acted according to what he might have foreseen would 
be the understanding, he is responsible. (1 Bishop on Criminal 
Law, sec. 641.)' 

"And in Regina v. Sharpe (3 Cox's C. C, 288) it is laid down 
that — 

" 'He who inflames people's minds and induces them by violent 
means to accomplish an illegal object is himself a rioter, though 
he takes no part in the riot.' 

"Indeed the court does not hesitate to say that, considering 
the natural and reasonable effect of the publication, it was in- 
tended willfully to obstruct recruiting. And even though we were 
not convinced that any such intent existed and were in doubt 
concerning it, the case would be governed by the principle that 
the head of a department of the Government, in a doubtful case, 
will not be overruled by the courts in a matter which involves 
his judgment and discretion and which is within his jurisdic- 
tion." 

Several of the publishers of The Masses were brought to trial 
on charges of violating the Espionage Act. 

The defendants protested that they had changed their minds 
since this publication and that they were now convinced of the 
justice of our entry into the war, and the necessity of the conscrip- 
tion act. Largely on account of this recantation, no doubt, the jury 
disagreed after remaining out for thirty-six hours. 

VARIOUS LIES : THE SWEATER STORY. 

As there is hardly a field of human endeavor that is not af- 
fected by the war, there is hardly a field which the hostility of the 
enemy has overlooked. This is what might be called the spiritual 
invasion. Anything that tends to diminish the ardor, the con- 
viction, the optimism of the people at large, is hardly less destruc- 
tive of effectiveness than an actual defeat on the battleground. 

At a time when the whole nation must bend every energy and 
make every sacrifice, discouraging rumors gain an incalculable 
power. The ridicule of measures concerning food conservation, or 
aspersions on their honesty, or impartiality, may have as destructive 
a result as the torpedoing of food-ships. The starting of some 
picturesque lie such as the absurdity that the President's private 
secretary had been found guilty of treason and shot, spreads like 
wild-fire through the nation, carrying discouragement and dismay. 



By Dissension 129 

The famous sweater story is a typical case : It is of the greatest 
importance to the health of our troops that sweaters, socks, wrist- 
lets and "helmets" should be knitted for them by the devoted women 
of the land, and an enormous quantity of these articles provided 
from the countless hand looms. 

Suddenly a story appeared somewhere that a woman who had 
knitted a sweater and sewed into it a bank note for the comfort of 
the wearer, found that sweater on the back of a Eed Cross agent, or 
on the counter of a department store. This story reappeared with 
inconceivable frequency in the United States. It was almost always 
told as the experience of a friend of a friend, and had just trans- 
pired in each instance. 

Every woman who hears and believes this circumstantial story 
is inclined to give up her work. The sum total of such a diminu- 
tion of output can not be computed. In times of peace such ex- 
amples of wireless gossip are merely amusing encouragements to 
satire. In a time of war, they constitute a serious danger. 

The extent of this form of propaganda was revealed by the 
American Protective League, which sent out a Questionnaire to 
about one hundred and fifty towns and cities. The story of the 
execution of the President's secretary, the sweater story, and various 
other fables were reported as rife in Chicago, Cincinnati, Pitts- 
burgh, Kansas City, Cleveland, Fort Wayne, Minneapolis, Galves- 
ton, Houston, Hastings, Nebr. ; Memphis, Tenn, ; Eice Lake, Wis. ; 
Pierre, S. Dak. ; Sacramento, Portland, Oreg. ; Tucson, Ariz., and 
nearly every other community. In many cases it is impossible to 
trace such stories directly to German sources, but they are no less 
dangerous for being of American origin. Eumor-mongers are as 
proper subjects for investigation and repression as mutinous sol- 
diers, deserters or traitors in the ranks. 

The Milwaukee Sentinel of June 21, 1918, announced a new 
story going the rounds to the effect that Japan is getting ready 
to attack the United States as soon as all our draftmen are out 
of the country. 

In San Francisco a German clairvoyant was arrested for giving 
out prophecies of pro-German successes to her dupes. 

Stories of naval disasters to our fleet, quotations from eye-wit- 
nesses, once-removed, of hundreds of wounded sailors seen being 
smuggled into hospitals ; stories of epidemics sweeping through our 
camps; tales of hardships and cruelties and immoralities — all these 
tend not only to agonize the kindred of our soldiers and sailors, but 



130 Propaganda 

to diminish enlistment, to strengthen the pacifists and the aliens, 
to encourage resistance to the draft. Statements that Liberty 
Bonds and Thrift Stamps are worthless and will be repudiated have 
a direct financial menace. 

People and societies of loudly proclaimed sincerity have promul- 
gated the most outrageous slanders proclaiming the immorality 
of Eed Cross nurses and the drunkenness and viciousness of our 
troops abroad and at home. Such libels left unpunished not only 
reward the noblest patriots with unmerited dishonor, but they dis- 
courage sacrifice and instil a paralyzing cynicism. 

The running down of such rumors takes time and labor and 
organization, but it is vital to our efficiency not only to stamp 
out such libel, but to bring home to our population, native and 
foreign, that they manufacture and disseminate such rumors at 
their peril. 

The German military party regarded America with a frank 
contempt, and boasted openly that they were prepared for any 
jSTational activity. They spoke with confidence of the damage that 
they would do to the United States. Great damage has indeed been 
done in innumerable ways, and especially by what has come to be 
known as the "Whispering Propaganda." 

TRACING A RUMOR. 

As a striking example of the rapidity with which rumor spreads 
and the irresponsibility of its promulgators, the two following docu- 
ments are worth quoting. They are reports of an effort to run 
down an atrocity story. The reports are verbatim except for the 
change of names of persons, hotels and streets : 

"From: Captain . 

"To: Captain 



"Subject: Report of outrage upon soldier. 

"1. Lt. Col. instructed the writer to make an investi- 
gation of ttie following matter: 

"2. It was reported by Lt. of Col. 's staff that 

he had heard through a young lady at the Vendome Hotel, this 
city, who had in turn heard from her sister this information, 

that a soldier at the Hospital in had been sent 

there from France with his tongue cut out. 

"3. It was reported that the mother of this soldier or a friend 
of his had gone to the hospital to see him. Upon her arrival 
there a nurse or a doctor had taken her to his room, previous 
to which she was warned not to speak to him. The nature of 
his injury was not communicated to the mother or friend until 
after the visit to this soldier, when she was told that his tongue 
had been cut out. 



By Dissension 131 

"4. Miss Mary Smith, telephone operator at the Hotel Ven- 
dome, stated that she had received this information from her 
sister, a Mrs. Jones, telephone operator at the Hamilton Hotel. 
Miss Smith's story was substantially the same as is outlined in 
the preceding paragraph. 

"5. Mrs. Jones, telephone operator at the Hamilton Hotel, 
was interviewed and stated that she had heard from a Miss 
White, also a telephone operator at the Hamilton, that the 
mother of this boy went to the hospital to see him and they made 
her promise not to talk to him. She was later told upon leav- 
ing the hospital that the boy had his tongue cut out. 

"6. Miss "White was interviewed at her address, 146 Astor 
Street. , She was up to a week ago employed as a telephone op- 
erator at the Vendome, but has left her position. She stated 
the story was told her by her aunt, Mrs. S. G. White, of 136 
Astor Street. She did not know the mother of this boy, and 
the details of the story in her mind were a little vague. 

"7. Mrs. S. G. White, 136 Astor Street, was interviewed, and 
her story varied a little from that given previously. The writer 
assumed that he was going to locate the mother of this soldier, 
as up to this time the stories were all about the same. Mrs. 
White, however, stated that she did not understand that the 
mother of this boy had visited him, but there was such a sol- 
dier confined at the hospital with such an injury. She stated 
that th© story had been told her by a Mrs. Green, 156 Astor 
Street, and by a Mrs. Young, 131 Astor Street. She had also 
heard it for some weeks past from various sources more or less 
to the effect as given above. 

"8. Mrs. Green, 156 Astor Street, was interviewed, and she 
stated that she could not recall the source of this information, 
but had heard it talked about generally in public places and 
during her various calls as a Liberty Loan solicitor. 

"9. While at Mrs. Green's house, her brother, Mr. F. J. Right, 
made his appearance and stated that he had heard through a Mr. 
J. M. Simpson, residing at 727 Dupont Street, that a Mr. Samuel 
Porter, deputy superintendent, above company, had made a speech 
a week previous to the agents of this company, wherein he 

stated that he had been to the Hospital and had seen a 

soldier there who had had his tongue cut out by the Germans. 

"10. Mrs. Young, 131 Astor Street, was interviewed and stated 
that she had heard this rumor, but could not recall from whom 
she had heard it, as it had been more or less common talk now 
for several weeks with many of the women of her acquaintance." 

(Above report dated May 21.) 

The following is dated June 4, 1918 : 



"From: 

"To: Captain 



"Subject: Report of outrage upon soldier. 

"1. Information being received that Miss Minnie Ryder, a 
hair-dresser at 1328 Fairfax Street, is telling a story that she 

went to visit a friend, wounded soldier at the Hospital, 

who had his hands cut off and his tongue cut out. 

"2. It being desired that Miss Ryder be interviewed and the 
name of soldier and full details of the matter be obtained, your 
agent acting upon your instructions has made the investigation 
of the case and respectfully submits the following: 

"3. Miss Minnie Ryder, 1328 Fairfax Street, stated that she 



132 Propaganda 

has never visited the hospital in question; has no friends or 
acquaintances there; has never made any remarks regarding 
the subject, but has heard of the case through a friend, Mrs. 
Frederick Palmer. 

"4. Mrs. Alberta Palmer, 1435 Harkness Street, stated that 
she had made several visits to the hospital in question but has 
never heard of the case from any one connected with said hos- 
pital, but she has been told of such a case by her sister-in-law, 
a Mrs. Harry 0. Harbor, also from members of the Red Cross 
Chapter of — • Church. 

"5. Mrs. Harry O. Harbor, 3149 Kingston Street, stated that 
she has made several visits to the hospital, she being interested 
in Red Cross work; she has never heard of the case through 
any one at said hospital, but has been told of the subject by a 
Miss Genevieve Rooney, who rooms at her residence. The case 
was later the subject of a conversation she had with some mem- 
bers of the Red Cross Chapter of the Church — she could 

not recall the names of members — and .later by some negro 
woman who stated that she had also heard of the case. 

"6. Miss Genevieve Rooney, 3149 Kingston Street, stated that 
she had heard of the case through a Mrs. W. 0. McClaflin. 

"7. Mrs. W. O. McClaflin, clerk in , stated that she was 

told of the case by a Mrs. C. E. Grey. 

"8. Mrs. C. E. Grey, 408 Brighton Street, stated that she was 
told of the case by a Mr. Elmer Fraider, who has a room in her 
residence. 

"9. Mr. Elmer Fraider, 408 Brighton Street, stated that he 
was told of the case by a Mr. W. W. James, who is employed 
in the trench; that Mr. James was out of town at this time, 
but that he told him that he had heard of the case through a 
Miss E. A. Sullivan. 

"10. Miss E. A. Sullivan, 1236 Superior Street, stated that 
she heard of the case through a trained nurse, Mrs. Oneida Car- 
ter, who shares the same apartment as she. 

"11. Mrs. Oneida Carter, 1236 Superior Street, stated that 
she was told of the case by a Mrs. Wm. F. Cameron, of Apart- 
ment No. 1, 1236 Superior Street. 

"12. Mrs. Wm. F. Cameron, 1236 Superior Street, stated that 
she was told of the case by her husband. 

"13. Mr. Wm. F. Cameron, 1236 Superior Street, slated that 

he had read of the case in the Times about two or three 

months ago; that he could not remember the exact date; that 

since reading of the case he had visited the < — Hospital and 

while there made inquiry of some doctor at said hospital and 
was told 'There was nothing to it.' 

"14. Agent has heard of the case through others not men- 
tioned herein and is continuing investigation and will make fur- 
ther report." 

The above is perhaps a unique instance of a determined pursuit 
of a rumor to its origin. It failed completely. 

jSTo one seems to know who starts these stories. But the guilt 
of those who pass them along is all the greater, seeing that a little 
investigation will ordinarily disprove them. To be both credulous 
and garrulous in matters of such moment is an offense against the 
country. 



By Dissension 133 

A new and laudable movement is seen in an organization by 
the suffrage leaders in ISTew York. They are forming women police 
reserves who are to go from house to house helping to educate the 
people and counteract German propaganda. 

PROPAGANDA BY ATTACKS ON MORALS. 

Of this ugly warfare, a prominent official has said : 

"We ascertained that in certain sections of the country re- 
ports had been circulated concerning the morality of the French 
people, particularly the people whose homes are in the vicinity of 
American overseas camps. The French women were painted as 
moral lepers, and the men as little better. The German agents 
whispered these lies in various parts of the country with the 
result that thousands of good American fathers and mothers 
became uneasy as to the moral safety of their soldier sons in 
France. The Germans followed these stories with others to the 
effect that the morale and health of the American troops under 
General Pershing had been destroyed as a result of the ravages 
of disease. A more devilish libel was never perpetrated, and 
this is proved by the facts in possession of the Government." 

This last statement flatters the Germans, and robs numerous 
American slanderers of their due. It is a melancholy fact that a 
branch organization of one of the leading American Protestant 
churches encouraged its lecturers to promulgate, and issued pub- 
lications promulgating, stories to the effect that vice was rampant 
in the ranks of our soldiers in France, and that conditions of drunk- 
enness were general. In the stories which this organization put 
out, American fathers and mothers were told that their sons were 
being debauched in France. The matter was printed, and was so 
grotesque in its character that belief in it was seemingly impos- 
sible by any person of mental balance, but that- it would work harm 
among the unthinking was manifest. 

This matter was taken up with the military authorities in 
France and with certain authorities in the United States. The 
Chaplains, irrespective of denomination, serving the troops in 
France, collectively denied the stories of vice and drunkenness, and 
General Pershing in an official communication to the War Depart- 
ment, entered specific denial on his own behalf. 

V 

THE ATTACK ON RED CROSS NURSES. 

Peculiarly loathsome has been the effort to discredit the Eed 
Cross and its splendid women. This reached such proportions that 
it was taken up in the courts of ISTew York. The account in the 
Times of May 10, 1918, discloses various phases of it: 



134 Propaganda 



"The Federal Grand Jury for the Southern District of New 
York handed a presentment to Judge Augustus N. Hand on May 
9, 1918, regarding the source of truthfulness of certain stories 
which have been circulated in this country, 'to the effect,' as the 
presentment put it, 'that frightful and scandalous conditions at- 
tend the Red Cross nurses in the American Army Hospitals in 
France.' 

"These vicious reports are believed to be a part of the wide- 
spread German 'whispering' propaganda, the purpose being to 
create dissension among the people in America, as well as to 
frighten the women so that they will not enter the overseas 
nursing service. 

"The Grand Jury investigation was undertaken by order of 
the Government for the two-fold purpose of identifying, if pos- 
sible, the source of the propaganda, and to make the falsity and 
viciousness of the report a matter of court record. The Grand Jury, 
the foreman of which is W. DeS. Trenholm, investigated various 
stories which have been widely repeated, not only in New York 
but all over the country, and cites in its presentment as typical 
one 'reported to have been made at Vassar College by Dr. Emma 
B. Culbertson, senior surgeon of the New England College for 
Women and Children at Boston.' 

"In substance this story, the Grand Jury says, was as follows: 
It was a matter of common knowledge that 200 beds had been 
reserved in the Sloane Maternity Hospital, New York City, for 
Red Cross nurses who were returning from France and expect- 
ing immediate confinement. 

"This statement, the presentment claimed, was called to the 
attention of this Grand Jury on the ground that if the state- 
ments were true, the failure of the military authorities properly 
to safeguard the nurses in the service of the United States Army 
abroad, would constitute gross neglect, and accordingly it would 
be the duty of the Grand Jury to call upon the proper authorities 
to take the requisite and necessary steps to correct such evil 
conditions, etc. 

"The investigation of the report, the Grand Jury adds, shows, 
'that the said Dr. Emma B. Culbertson on January 17, 1918, pub- 
licly made a statement at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y., in 
substance and effect that it was a matter of common knowledge 
that 200 beds in the Sloane Maternity Hospital, New York City, 
had been reserved for Red Cross Nurses who were returning 
from France and expecting immediate confinement, which state- 
ment was absolutely disproved by the authorities of that hos- 
pital; that said Emma B. Culbertson had absolutely no knowledge 
or information upon which to base said statement, and that said 
statement was wholly and entirely without foundation, and does 
further present that no Red Cross nurse has returned to this 
country from foreign service in such condition. 

" 'The Grand Jury further present that the said Emma B. Cul- 
bertson herself now believes that she has been misinformed as 
to the matters contained in the statement made by her and re- 
grets that she has been a party to the dissemination of a false 
statement. 

" 'The Grand Jury further present that the said Emma B. Cul- 
bertson did not wilfully make said statement with the intent to 
interfere with the operation and success of the military and naval 
forces of the United States, or to obstruct the American Red 
Cross in the recruiting or enlistment of nurses in the service of 
the United States.' 



By Dissension 135 

"Another story, which is also German propaganda, involved 
the mutilation and outraging of two young Belgian women. This 
was also found to be false from beginning to end. 

" 'The Grand Jury,' the presentment concludes, 'further pre- 
sents that it deplores the tendency shown by the public in gen- 
eral to give ready ear to and repeat stories and reports of a sen- 
sational and scandalous nature and character affecting the Amer- 
ican Red Cross and its nurses, for the reason that such stories 
and reports not only seriously interfere with the recruiting of 
nurses for service abroad, but also have a tendency to create 
public distrust in the American Red Cross, and are detrimental 
to the army activities it is carrying on to alleviate the unspeak- 
able condition due to the war.' 

"After the presentment was filed, Judge Hand addressed the 
jury and made it plain that the time had come to handle in most 
drastic fashion persons who circulate such stories as those in- 
vestigated by the jury. A person who repeats such stories, with- 
out investigating to ascertain the truth or falsity of them, 
Judge Hand added, should be held as making them wilfully and 
knowingly. After a reference to the remarks Miss Culbertson is 
alleged to have made at Vassar, Judge Hand continued: 

" 'This statement, your presentment shows, or statements that 
are equivalent to it, have been circulated in various cities and 
towns throughout the United States; it indicates on its face 
some deliberate propaganda from some malevolent source that is 
inimical to our institutions. 

" 'The Espionage Act covers exactly this sort of thing unless 
it is innocent. If it is wilful and knowing, the Espionage 
Act covers it, and a jury or Grand Jury is justified, in the ab- 
sence of anything else, in inferring knowledge and wilfulness 
from lack of foundation and recklessness in the statements 
themselves. 

" 'You have investigated this particular statement: I know the 
substantial and representative body of men that you are from this 
community, and I am not in any way suggesting that your 
presentment in regard to this particular matter and this particu- 
lar physician is not correct. I am confident that you have satis- 
fied yourselves that she did make this statement at Vassar Col- 
lege in good faith, but in future matters which come to your at- 
tention, I will remind you that where the statement is utterly 
reckless, and proves to be utterly without foundation, in the ab- 
sence of any adequate explanation on the part of the person 
making the statement, it would be justifiable to find that it was 
wilful and knowing. A statement like this, which after inves- 
tigation you have found to be utterly without foundation; which 
after the reports and testimony of representatives of the Sloane 
Hospital, you have found had not a scintilla of evidence back of 
it, is a thing to be deprecated and severely censured by the 
court. 

" 'That a person should come to a place which is a seminary, 
a college for the education of young women who are eager, many 
of them to go abroad to act as nurses for the Red Cross, and 
circulate such a harebrained statement as this in the presence of 
these young women, that would alarm the authorities of the 
college, that would discourage their enlistment as nurses, is a 
most reprehensible and disgraceful thing. 

" 'The American people have been very tolerant in these mat- 
ters, and I think it is greatly to their credit that they have, but 



136 Propaganda 

the time has certainly come when people who utter falsehoods, 
make statements without the slightest foundation which they 
have picked up on the curbstone in the street and then give 
them out in some public place, not knowing whether they are 
true or not, and choosing to believe them or give them out either 
for notoriety or for some reason which we cannot fathom, the 
time has certainly come when those people are going to be held 
responsible by juries in our courts of law. 

" 'The juries have been tolerant in the past because they did 
not want to believe evil of any one — but undoubtedly statements 
of this kind emanate from some source which is engaged in a 
deliberate and unfriendly propaganda, and it is certainly proper 
for the court to say here that the people in this community and 
every other community ought to take warning and to remember 
that when men in this country are sacrificing their lives; when 
women are. going to the front to act as nurses; when mothers 
are parting with their sons and wives with their husbands; when, 
as I saw up in Vermont the other day at a little college that I 
attended, about two-thirds of the senior class who were already 
engaged in military service, the least people can do who attempt 
to speak about matters relating to this war is to pay some kind 
of attention to the facts and to know what they are talking about, 
and not make statements and criticisms and spread wild rumors 
that are utterly unfounded in a perfectly irresponsible way. 
If they do it in the future they may expect indictments and they 
may expect trials, and they may be pretty certain of conviction.' " 

PROPAGANDA CONCERNING CAMP CONDITIONS. 

A typical ease of malicious rumor with manifest purpose is this : 
A man who registered at a Washington hotel in March, 1918, 
from Pittsburgh, told several persons that his son had written him 
saying that the men in Camp Lee, at Petersburg, Va., were 
mutinous on account of conditions, lack of uniforms, rifles, etc. 
He mentioned the 319th and 320th regiments as actually ready 
to revolt. 

This story, with its circumstantial mention of names and regi- 
ments, made a natural stir. It reached the ears of an army officer, 
who made an investigation. The Commanding Officer of the divi- 
sion replied that there were no such regiments at the camp, and no 
lack of equipment. 

"the one hundred AND ONE LIES." 

Swarms of lies have buzzed about the country to encourage 
opposition to the draft, distress the families of soldiers and con- 
vince the public of the inability of the United States to raise an 
army, to transport it across the ocean, to equip it or to protect it 
from evil. From a booklet with the above title a few more may be 
quoted : 



By Dissension 137 

" 'You have met him, Mr. Commercial Traveler,' says a book- 
let of the Committee on Public Information, 'and so have you, Mr. 
and Mrs. Civilian. 

" 'Who? The "clacker," the "gossip," the "inside information 
chap," the "Kaiserite" or whatever you choose to call the person 
who spread wild rumors and tales which are effective pro-German 
propaganda. 

" 'Therefore the book of "one hundred and one lies," and the 
book might have contained "one thousand and one" if that were 
necessary. For the stories encountered and "run down" as false 
are as numerous and fanciful as those of the Arabian Nights. 

" 'The itemized lies were "nailed" by actual investigation by 
representatives of the St. Louis Republic. They were printed 
by the Committee on Public Information with their refutation, 
for the use of commercial travelers, because smoking cars and 
Pullman cars have been favorite stamping grounds for the 
Kaiser's agents or those who unwittingly pass along the stories 
that originally were whispered by a German worker. 

" 'Some are absurd, like "Lie No. 1," which is that Joseph P.Tu- 
multy, secretary to the President, was found guilty of treason 
and sent to Fort Leavenworth, for intelligent folks can ascertain 
that Mr. Tumulty still is meeting all callers at the White House. 

" 'Others are of the sort that skeptics and cynics are apt to 
seize upon, and the refutation cannot be made so obvious. Such 
are "lies Nos. 2 and 4," which state that sweaters knit for soldiers 
in France have been sold by Red Cross workers and that tobacco 
collected through various agencies as gifts to men overseas has 
been sold to them instead. Nothing handled by the Red Cross is 
sold, and the agencies which collected tobacco funds have traced 
the tobacco to France and ascertained that it was given away, 
as intended. 

" 'Here are a few other "lies," some of which could only gain 
circulation among the credulous in backwoods communities and 
others which have been whispered in Washington: 

" ' "That no soldier or sailor, after he leaves American soil, is 
permitted to write home. 

" ' "That Base Hospital Unit (Washington University) No. 21 
had been annihilated while en route overseas, or that leading 
members of the organization had been executed as spies by the 
American government. 

" ' "That canned goods put up by housewives were to be seized 
by the Government and appropriated for the use of the Army 
and Navy. 

" ' "That the Pullman Company will not hire a man who does 
not wear a button showing he has contributed to the Y. M. C. A. 
war fund. 

" 'That all the 'plums' at the officers' training camps fall to 
Roman Catholics." 

" 'This one is familiar but has a new dress this time: 

" ' "That a mother sent her son at a training camp a big birth- 
day cake and then wrote asking him how he liked it. He re- 
plied that he had never seen the cake, but that he had passed an 
officer's tent and had seen him eating it. 

" ' "The sweater story about the $10 bill sewed into its fabric 
which the pro-Germans say the Red Cross sold has appeared this 
time in Jefferson City. Man told Missouri council of defense of 
the lie." 

" 'And there are many more of the same sort, ranging from 



(6) 



138 Propaganda 

one circulated in the West that 10,000 Englishmen are in Colorado 
waiting until Uncle Sam sends all his soldiers and equipment to 
France, when they will seize the United States and annex it to 
Great Britain, to the rumor, also spread in the Middle West, 
that the Government will confiscate all the money deposited in 
national banks.' " 

THE Y. M. C. A. 

It was discovered that some accredited representatives of the 
Y. M. C. A. who were serving abroad almost within the field of 
operations, were doing what they could to dampen the ardor of 
the American troops by preaching to them a species of pacifism 
which, if it were effective, would destroy the morale of our soldiers. 
The vast majority of the representatives of this great beneficent 
institution were loyal, but the few who were preaching their par- 
ticular pacifist doctrines unquestionably were injuring the cause 
of their country. 

It was desired that the matter should be handled so as to avoid 
extreme publicity or scandal in any form. The course was adopted 
of taking the matter up with the heads of the institution, putting 
the facts of the case before them with the names of the accused 
and presenting therewith convincing proofs of the truth of the 
charges. The officials of the organization at once removed from 
their positions the disloyal ones and instituted a new system by which 
no one can enter the service of the organization until his loyalty 
to his country and to his organization definitely is proven. 

This matter, which was a serious one, proves that there is no 
group so patriotic or so honorable in its objects or the body of 
its membership as to be beyond the reach of propaganda. There 
is none which can safely be omitted from observation. 

PROPAGANDA FOE AN IMPERFECT PEACE. 

The policies and past activities of the nation have suffered 
misrepresentation in every phase. Propaganda is also constantly 
at work to shape our future policies, and to incline the country 
to accept a makeshift peace not worth the price already paid for it. 

A consideration of this method of attack with the citation of 
a well masked instance of it, is given by Jerome Landfield in the 
San Francisco Bulletin of March 30, 1918: 

"With the declaration of war by America, German propa- 
ganda did not cease here; it only became more cautious. Per- 
haps it is all the more dangerous on that account, for its earlier 
character was so bold and rough as to nullify some of its ef- 



By Dissension 139 

fects, whereas the present propaganda is far more insidious. 

The editorials, for example, were far less noxious when 

they came out boldly for Germany than when they conceal 
the venom of an attack on England beneath a veneer of florid 
patriotic utterance. 

"There is no greater^ danger today than the widely spread 
idea that somehow or other we can get out of the war as soon 
as Germany meets our particular terms and satisfies the imme- 
diate demands in regard to our maritime rights, the violation 
of which was the immediate occasion of our coming into the 
war. It is along this line that Germany's agents in this coun- 
try work, 

"We know that German agents in our airplane factories have 
hollowed out steel braces and filled them with lead, so that they 
would break during a flight and kill our aviators. Many a 
brave young American has already fallen to his death as a 
result of these dastardly outrages. But even this is a trifle 
compared with the damage wrought by those other agents who 
are spreading propaganda poison throughout the country. 

"I have Just been reading a pamphlet in which a lot of this 
noxious material is well concealed behind an apparently harm- 
less and reasonable exterior. It is entitled 'Business Condi- 
tions' and purports to be 'The Monthly Letter of the Alexander 
Hamilton Institute.' Let me quote a few sentences from it: 

" 'President Wilson has also abandoned his demands for no 
annexation and the self-determination of governments by peo- 
ples. This was necessary to harmonize our aims in the war 
with those of France, Italy, and Great Britain. France desires 
to annex Alsace-Lorraine, and Italy demands part of Austria. 
Great Britain and her colonies, who are assuming large respon- 
sibilities in the war, desire that Germany be restricted in her 
operations in Arabia and Africa. If President Wilson had in- 
sisted that France and Italy fight without expecting to annex 
territory, it would have left them nothing to fight for; and 
since it is important that all the Allies should co-operate until 
victory is won, our Government has approved the annexation 
of territory by the Allies.' 

"It hardly seems necessary to comment on this vile dose of 
poison, the purport is so self-evident. To speak of the restora- 
tion of Alsace-Lorraine to France or the union of the Italian 
Trentino and Trieste to Italy as annexation in the sense in which 
that word was used by President Wilson is to endeavor to mis- 
lead deliberately and maliciously. The whole idea of the vicious 
paragraph is, of course, to convey the idea that our Allies are 
in the war for purely selfish and sordid motives and that they 
are on the same plane as Germany. 

"The pamphlet then goes on to say: 

" 'The chief aim of the United States in the war is to put a 
stop forever to Germany's methods of submarine warfare. The 
people of the United States are in the war mainly for this pur- 
pose. * * * Whether territory is annexed or whether all 
races are permitted to determine their own government are mat- 
ters of secondary importance. * * * The country will ap- 
prove the action of the President in compromising some of his 
subordinate demands if this shall avoid friction among the Al- 
lies, hasten the beginning of peace negotiations, and prevent 
unnecessary bloodshed. Let us always keep in mind that our 
chief aim in the war is to establish humane methods in war- 
fare and just principles of international law/ " 



140 Propaganda 

A better statement of the attitude of the Allies toward Germany 
could not be better made than the following editorial from the 
Washington Star of June 26, 1918 : 

"Dr. von Kuehlmann, the German foreign secretary, stated 
the case with remarkable precision and clearness in the Reich- 
stag Monday when he said: 

" 'For so long as every overture is regarded by others as a 
peace offensive — as a trap or as something false for the purpose 
of sowing disunion between allies; so long as every attempt of a 
rapprochement is at once violently denounced by the enemies of 
a rapprochement in the various countries, so long will it be 
impossible to see how any exchange of ideas leading to peace 
can be begun.' 

"Really some progress has been made toward understanding 
if the German spokesman has reached the point of appreciating 
that the allies look with incredulity upon German talk of peace, 
with suspicion upon German suggestions of terms, with positive 
distrust upon German pretensions of desire to arrange amicably 
for the end of the war. 

"Dr. Kuehlmann urges that one of the preliminary conditions 
of the real peace approach 'must be certain degrees of mutual 
confidence in each other's honesty and chivalry.' Let it be ac- 
cepted as a basic fact in this present deadlock of war that none 
of the entente powers today has the least confidence in Ger- 
many's 'honesty and chivalry.' If peace cannot come until the 
allied powers approach the table of conference with trust in those 
qualities on the part of Germany the war must go on and on. 

"Germany has forfeited all claims to confidence and trust. 
Violating every canon of decency, every law of international re- 
lationship, every rule of war, Germany today stands exposed in a 
hideous nakedness of dishonor. No form of words, no belated 
show of repentance or reform can win condonement by the allies. 

"If hope persists at Berlin that England, France, Italy and the 
United States can be cajoled or wearied into peace maneuvers 
on the basis of agreement with Germany as a power of equal 
negotiations, the amazing self-delusion that has beset Germany 
from the beginning still prevails, a delusion that has cost the 
world the greatest penalty it has ever paid, a penalty that will 
have been a wicked waste if it does not lead to permanent 
protection from an evil power seeking dominion by force." 

Commenting on the same speech the Daily Chronicle of Lon- 
don said : 

"Nothing that the Allies could pretend, no self-deception in 
which they might be led to acquiesce, could render the present 
German Government 'capable of covenanted faith,' while its hands 
are foul with the pollution of hundreds of perfidies and dripping 
with the blood of millions shed in an unprovoked, and as yet 
unrepented, war. 

"The Daily News says that Kuehlmann, in laying down the 
condition which excludes Alsace-Lorraine from discussion, rejects 
the condition which is the irreducible minimum of the British 
case, 'but,' it adds, 'we have to discount heavily the terms put 
forward in the open. It is something to have reached a stage 
at which Germany admits that no military decision can settle 
the war. That is the beginning of the will to peace." 



CHAPTER YII. 
THE ESPIONAGE ACT. 

The Department of Justice has issued a series of bulletins called 
'^'Interpretations of War Statutes." These mainly contain the 
charges to juries by judges of the United States District Courts. 
A study of them shows the difficulty faced by the judges in per- 
suading themselves or the juries that propaganda was punishable 
under the terms of the Espionage Act of June 15, 1917. 

Without financial backing the war could not go on. Funds 
must be raised some way. The hostile spirits would have, of course, 
attacked any available method of funding the war. They naturally 
turned all their guns on the method adopted. 

A number of men of high position used all their powers of 
eloquence or obstruction to prevent or to discredit the sale of bonds. 
Later, they and their less conspicuous disciples did their best to 
make the sale a failure. The favorite charge, of course, was the 
old cry of "Wall Street." Everything about the war has been 
labeled "Wall Street" by the enemies of its success. 

The opponents of the Liberty Loans and the War Savings 
Stamps have been harshly dealt with in many neighborhoods, num- 
erous individuals being tarred and feathered, painted yellow, horse- 
whipped and compelled to purchase what they derided. 

The Department of Justice Bulletin No. 56 contains the charge 
to the jury on February 1, 1918, of the U. S. District Court, Dis- 
trict of Colorado, in the case of one W. B. Tanner. Tanner, it 
was charged, did, in November, 1917, at Sterling, Colo., under 
Section 3, Title 1, of the Espionage Act, "feloniously and wilfully 
attempt to cause disloyalty, insubordination, mutiny, and refusal 
of duty in the military and naval forces of the U. S., to the injury 
of the U. S.," and in the presence of various persons had stated in 
substance : "There is no security behind the Liberty Bonds. The 
conservation of food is all bosh. As soon as the capitalists on Wall 
Street have all the money they want this war will be over in 24 
hours." Also he stated before other witnesses: "The Liberty Bonds 
will only be worth 50 cents on the dollar within two years. The first 
thing we ought to do after Congress meets is to impeach that 
Wilson. Talk about being under the Kaiser. Well, it is a whole 
lot worse over here in this country. England and France will be 

141 



142 Propagmida 

forced to quit. The United States will have to come down off her 
high horse." 

The Court dealt very closely with the claim that such language 
brought the defendant within reach of the Espionage Act: 

"The defendant can not be convicted on any of these counts 
unless you find from the evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt, 
that he has committed, in the manner charged against him, the 
specific crime charged against him — the one defined in the stat- 
ute on which the indictment is based. There is more than 
one element in each of these crimes. It is not sufficient to 
convict the defendant on any or all of these counts, to simply 
show that he uttered the language, the substance of which is 
set forth in the indictment and testified to by some of the wit- 
nesses; but before you can convict him on the first and third 
counts you must believe from the evidence, beyond a reasonable 
doubt, that in the uttering of that language on the occasion in 
question he willfully caused or attempted to cause insubordina- 
tion, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty in the military or 
naval forces of the United States to the injury of the United 
States. Likewise on the second and fourth counts. He can not 
be convicted on either of these counts by simply showing that 
he uttered the language charged against him or the substance 
of that language on the two occasions in question; but you 
must further find and believe from the evidence, beyond a rea- 
sonable doubt, that in the utterance of that language he did 
willfully obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service of the 
United States to the injury of the service or of the 
United States. That is to say, howsoever reprehensible a criti- 
cism of the war and the methods of carrying it on may be, that 
criticism is not a violation of this statute unless, on the one 
hand, it is made in an attempt to cause insubordination, dis- 
loyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty in the military or naval 
forces of the United States;, or unless, on the other hand, its 
utterance obstructs the recruiting and enlistment service of the 
United States to the injury of that service." 

Bulletin 58 contains a similar charge by the U. S. District 
Court for the District of Wyoming in the case against one Wil- 
liam Hahn, who made a large number of very familiar remarks 
to the effect that — 

"the American people should not believe anything contained in 
the newspapers published in English in the United States; that 
the said newspapers were full of lies about the war and about 
Germany; that the only true facts published in newspapers of 
this country were in the newspapers published in the German 
language; that President Wilson had been in favor of the Allies 
ever since the war commenced in 1914; that President Wilson 
had been paid huge sums of money for aiding the Allies; that 
President Wilson had gone into the war for a huge sum of 
money; that the people of the United States were not fighting 
this war for their own country, but for the millionaires and 
the rich people; that President Wilson had never intended to 
have any war with Mexico or to use any troops in this country, 
but that the American army had been gathered at the border 



The Espionage Act 143 

b€tv/eeii Mexico and the United States solely for the purpose of 
training them to fight against Germany; that the United States, 
even with the aid of all the European countries, could never 
defeat the German army; that Germany is right in its conten- 
tions and that the United States is wrong; that the United 
States has no right to send troops to Europe; that draft riots 
will occur; that if he were a young man he would cut his trig- 
ger finger off before he would go to fight the Germans." 

In the course of its charge this court stated: 

"It is not necessary to show that the statements made actu- 
ally brought about insubordination or disloyalty, but it is quite 
sufficient to warrant a conviction if you believe from the evi- 
dence beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant made the 
statements, or any of them, in an attempt to cause insubordina- 
tion or disloyalty and with the intent to bring about that re- 
sult. In other words, you can only generally determine what 
is in a person's mind by external manifestations; and in deter- 
mining the question of intent of the defendant in this case you 
have the right to take into consideration not only the direct evi- 
dence bearing thereon, if any, but all the facts and circum- 
stances surrounding the defendant in this transaction, so far 
as they may be disclosed by the evidence, including in the case 
the words that the evidence shows were in fact actually used 
by the defendant. * * * 

"The case is important to the defendant because he' stands 
here charged with a serious offense against the United States, 
and if the evidence fails to convince you beyond a reasonable 
doubt that he is guilty he is entitled to a verdict of acquittal 
at your hands. On the other hand, the case is important to 
the Government. The United States is at war. It is organiz- 
ing military forces, and it demands that those forces and each 
member thereof shall give obedience, loyalty, and strict per- 
formance of duty to the Government; and it can not tolerate 
any attempt by any one at any time or at any place to cause 
disloyalty, insubordination, or refusal of duty. Such attempts 
must be investigated by the Government; and if the investi- 
gation justifies it the party must be brought to trial, as the 
defendant has been brought to trial here." 

In the case against Floyd Ramp, before the United States Dis- 
trict Court in Oregon, the defendant was charged with haranging, 
in September, 1917, a number of men actually conscripted and 
on their way to camp, with words to the effect — 

"that the President boo-hooed the people into electing him on 
the promise to keep us out of war, and now he is worse than 
the Czar of Russia; that to draft men into military service was 
wrong, and he, the said defendant, did not believe in it; that 
these men * * * may think they are going to fight for the 
democracy, but they are not; that they * * * are fighting 
for the capitalistic class, such as Rockefeller; that to draft men 
into the army is wrong; I am opposed to it; these men" (mean- 
ing said conscripted men) "don't know what they are doing; 
that if you knew" (speaking to the men) "what you are fight- 
ing for you would not fight; that you" (meaning the men) 



144 Propaganda 

"are going because you are forced to by your masters; if you 
* * * took a vote on this train, two-thirds of you * * * 
would not vote to go; you * * * think you are fighting for 
true democracy, but you are not; you are fighting to swell the 
purses of your masters, and there is no true democracy in it." 

Later he said to the same men: 

"Do you boys * * * know that you are fighting for the 
capitalists? * * * Better have a pick and shovel laboring for 
the working men instead of carrying a gun for the capitalists; 
I won't fight for the capitalists. Are there any I. W. W.'s in 
this crowd? If so, come out, because you are not fighting for 
the poor man; you are fighting for the rich man. I have a lot 
to talk to you about, but you won't let me talk." 

In this case the Courts after showing the abridgment of the 
rights of free speech necessary during war, took up the question 
of wilful intent and permitted evidence concerning the defendant's 
previous activities to be introduced, saying: 

"As bearing further upon this subject of intent I have per- 
mitted evidence to go to you intending to show the defendant's 
conduct and speech at other times and places previous to the 
occurrence of the events out of which the charges against him 
have arisen. I refer to his deportment at the meeting of the 
Honor Guard girls and at other patriotic meetings in Roseburg, 
his action in distributing leaflets in the restaurant, and his con- 
versations with different persons, all with a view to discover- 
ing light respecting his bent of mind and his attitude toward 
the maintaining of military forces in the United States. He 
avows frankly his fervid attachment to the Socialist Party, with 
all that that term implies, and shows his utter opposition to all 
war, and you may look into the whole of his testimony, along 
with his acts and conduct then and here, for ascertaining the 
attitude or bent of his mind, so that you may be able to say 
finally what his true intent and purpose were in uttering the 
language attributed to him by the indictment. If he uttered 
the language or a substantial part of it, as alleged, and intended 
thereby or attempted willfully to incite or cause to be put in 
operation the vices enumerated by the statute in the military 
forces of the United States or any of them, in any degree, he 
would be guilty; otherwise not." 

The infiaence of agitation against the war is vividly pictured 
in the charge of Judge Wade in the Southern District of Iowa, 
in the case against Daniel H. Wallace (Bulletin No. 4) : 

"The right of freedom of speech is so sacred and had been so 
much abused in the bitter days before the establishment of this 
Government that in the fundamental law they protected the right 
of free speech; but no constitution, no law, no congress and no 
legislature ever said that a man could say anything that he 
wanted to and not be responsible for what he said. The man who 
calls you a thief and the man who assaults your wife's virtue in 



The Espionage Act 145 

the streets is exercising his right of free speech under the Con- 
stitution, but you can compel him in court to respond in damages 
for this invasion of your rights. The man who publishes in the 
newspaper, under the freedom of the press, a base libel against 
you or your family is exercising his right under the Constitution, 
but he can be haled into court and be compelled to pay his last 
penny for the wrong he has done you, and he can be indicted by 
the grand jury of the proper jurisdiction and be sent to prison 
for the publication of it. We ought not to have any misconcep- 
tion about this matter of the right of free speech. Men have 
the right to speak, no matter how bad it is, but they are respon- 
sible to the law for the consequences if they have invaded a man's 
right or violated the law defining a crime. And so, as to this 
case, there is testimony offered here to show that this man made 
a speech some 150 times. Up to June 15 this year, whether we 
consider this speech as violating every rule of decency, or whether 
we consider it entirely proper, there was no power under the law of 
the United States to punish him. Up to that time he had the right 
of freedom of speech — he has it yet— he had it here that night. He 
is not being tried here for violating any law with relation to the 
freedom of speech except with reference to this one specific thing. 
Before this law was approved, June 15, 1917, there wasn't any 
law under which this man (outside of possible suits for injuries, 
if any person was injured — if he was sued for slander) could be 
indicted for what he said; but on June 15 a new law was passed, 
absolutely new to this generation at least, and, so far as I know, 
new in the history of the country. Why? Because this country 
had reached the most tragic time in the history of the nation. 
Because we had, by a vote of the proper constitutional authority— 
the Congress of the United States — announced the existence of a 
state of war with Germany. From that moment Germany was our 
enemy. It don't make any difference whether she was virtuous 
or vicious, she will be our enemy until this war is over, and the 
American people naturally must treat her as an enemy. 

"Now, the fortunes, or the fates, compelled us — at least it was 
so recognized by the proper authorities — and I am speaking about 
matters of common knowledge of which you have a right to take 
notice — has placed us side by side in this conflict with England, 
France and Italy, with whom we are from force of circumstances, 
as we view it at the present time at least, compelled to co-operate 
in this conflict. I want you to get the background at the time 
this speech was rhade, and I want you to consider the circum- 
stances under which it was made. I want you to consider the 
real elemental problems that the American people had at that 
hour and have yet. Now, Congress felt that in order that we 
might prosecute this war properly and with honor that there 
must be some law protecting, or rather prohibiting, anyone who 
for any reason or motive, no matter what, whether it be for real 
injuries he received at the hands of those people, no matter what, 
prohibiting every man from in any manner attempting to weaken 
the thing, the forces which the Government has to rely upon in 
this war. It is evident, of course, that that first means men, 
then money, and then care of the men; and you have a right 
to take notice of the fact that in the organization of the Army, 
in the raising of the money and in the care of the men, because 
these are all matters of common knowledge, that certain organi- 
zations were used, utilized and relied upon, including the Y. M. 
C. A. and the Red Cross. We had to have men; we had to have 



146 Propaganda 

money; and to get men and money we had to have the proper 
spirit. 

"Well, Congress decided that they would try to prohibit the 
invasion of the right to these things by certain laws, and among 
other things it prohibited two things — things which Congress 
said constituted a crime. It did not say, You shall not speak; but 
it did say. If you do speak with a certain purpose and in language 
which would naturally be effective for carrying out that purpose, 
you shall be punished. In other words, it placed upon every 
citizen in the United States, whether he be a citizen of the 
United States or of some other country, the duty of sacrificing 
for the time being his right to free speech or else suffer the con- 
sequences. And so, Congress passed a law that 'whoever, when 
the United States is at war, shall wilfully cause or attempt to 
cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny or refusal of duty in 
the military or naval forces of the United States' shall be pun- 
ished. Now, it doesn't say that it must be by speech, but it may 
be by word or act or print, or in any other way. That provision 
of that law is involved in this case. And Congress further enacted 
that 'whoever shall wilfully obstruct the enlistment or recruit- 
ing service of the United States to the injury of the United 
States' shall be punished. Now, that law isn't very difficult to 
understand. 

"This indictment here In the first count is based upon an al- 
leged violation of the restriction I have read first to you, and the 
second count upon the restriction I read second. So, that I say, 
as I said when I started out, the simple question in this case is 
What did this man say down there that night? And why did 
he say it? Now, experience in life teaches us that ordinarily 
when men do things knowingly, deliberately, there is some pur- 
pose. Now, the purpose and the intent become a material 
matter in this case, and to judge of the purpose and intent, which 
are largely a matter of mind and heart, you have got to be guided 
pretty largely by a man's acts in this world. You have got to look 
down into the heart and see what a man has there. It isn't 
always safe to let him determine by his statement what his in- 
tentions were. The law does permit him to go upon the stand 
and tell what his intentions were, but the jury is not bound 
by that absolutely. You have a right to consider it, give it the 
proper weight, together with all the other evidence, and deter- 
mine what his intention was and what was his purpose. So, now, 
when you come to the real thing that is in this case, you judge 
this man by his acts and conduct at that time and his acts and 
conduct as you have seen it here. Now, what did he say? You 
have heard the testimony of some seven or eight witnesses for 
the Government, and heard the testimony of the defendant and 
another witness. You have to weigh the evidence of these wit- 
nesses and determine what was said. 

"Of course, I am not going through the claims made by the 
Government as to the particular things that they claim he said, 
but I will illustrate by one or two. Did he say, now, there that 
night that when a soldier went away he was a hero and that 
when he came back flirting with a hand organ he was a bum, 
and that the asylums will be filled with them? Did he say that 
or not? You have got to say that. If I express an opinion of 
any facts here in this case, I don't want you to consider that 
opinion; I don't intend to, but in the discussion sometimes of the 
evidence, it might appear to you that I was expressing an opinion. 



The Espionage Act 147 

I am not trying to. Did he say it? Suppose, now, you say, 'Yes, 
he said that'; then the real question is, 'Why?' What was his pur- 
pose? Judge that from all of the facts and circumstances under 
which he was speaking. These facts and circumstances are not 
in dispute except in matters of detail. There is no dispute that at 
that time there was a battery here of United States soldiers, 
either actually enlisted or ready for enlistment; there is no dis- 
pute but what a Government officer of the United States was here 
with headquarters for enlistment; there is no question at all 
that the only way they can get men in the army is by volunteers 
and by conscription; and in this connection you have a right to 
go right down into human nature and what you know about it. 
You have a right to consider in so far as you know from human 
experience what a hard thing it is for parents to sometimes give 
up their boy to the service of the Government in war, and how 
far, if at all, statements of that kind, if they were made, would 
reach down into the heart of a father or mother or boy and have 
a tendency to take the courage out of them; how, if at all, it 
would have that effect; or how far, if at all, it would have some 
other effect. You have a right to take those things into considera- 
tion. Take not one single statement here, but all the statements; 
take not only what the Government says that this man said, but 
take what he says he said himself, and determine what he meant; 
what was his purpose and intent. For instance, as I recall the 
testimony — but you are to determine that question: — he said this 
is a capitalist war. If so, what was his purpose? As I recall, 
he testified that he said soldiers were giving their lives for the 
capitalists, that 40 per cent of the ammunition of the allies or 
their guns was defective because of graft. If so, what was his 
purpose? What purpose does he explain himself? Give his ex- 
planation all the weight it is entitled to under all the circum- 
stances. You are to determine the question, whether he was 
trying to restrain enlistment as charged, or words to that effect; 
or whether he was trying to restrain them from enlisting in the 
English Army. Take his explanation and determine what his 
purpose was, take the circumstances under which he said it, 
surrounding it and all that he said. 

"And so, I have used these few statements simply to illus- 
trate the processes of the mind by which you must arrive at 
what the defendant did in this case. Now, if he said things, as 
claimed by the Government, which from their very nature the 
result would have upon the human mind a tendency to cause in- 
subordination, disloyalty, or mutiny, or refusal of duty, if that 
was the real natural consequence that would follow from a speech 
of that kind, and if he intended it to have that effect, he is guilty 
on this first count. And that is true, even though it did not have 
that effect. The Government does not have to prove that some- 
body somewhere did violate some rule or regulation, because 
the statute is plain: 'Whoever, when the United States is at 
war, shall wilfully cause or attempt to cause insubordination, 
disloyalty, mutiny or refusal of duty in the military or naval 
forces of the United States' shall be punished. If he 'attempts' it. 
"Now, if you find that he did those things in the manner in- 
dicated, under the law you have got to say he is guilty. 

"It isn't of course now a question of whether he said all of 
these things just as the Government says he did, but it is the 
question of whether he said any of them, the natural consequence 
of which would be that it would obstruct the recruiting and 



148 Propaganda 

enlistment service of the United States. The Government doesn't 
have to go out and find a particular individual that was re- 
strained from entering the service of the United States because 
of his speech; it is sufficient if it has proven that he uttered 
words there, the natural and probable consequence of which 
upon the public mind would obstruct recruiting or enlistment, 
with an intention that it should do so. The Government must 
prove that though by a preponderance of the evidence; otherwise 
he can't be convicted upon the second count. 

"So you see, after all, it gets down to a very narrow question, 
comparatively narrow. Did he say these things, or any of them, 
with the purpose charged by the Government in this indictment, 
as I have explained to you, or didn't he? And was the language 
that you find he used, was that language such as under the cir- 
cumstances under which it was used, taking all of his speech 
together, would naturally and probably do the things charged by 
the Government? What would be the natural consequence of what 
he did? Would it either, under the first count, cause or attempt 
to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty, 
or under the second count, obstruct the recruiting and enlistment 
service? 

"Now, that is about all the help I can give you gentlemen. 
Of course, it is necessary in the administration of law, in the 
application of law to the complex affairs of human life, to pro- 
ceed upon the theory that men ordinarily intend the natural con- 
sequence of their acts. That presumption is not conclusive, but it 
is the ordinary thing, that men, ordinary men, do intend to do 
■ the thing that their acts would indicate, and their purpose can 
• usually be judged from their acts, but that has got to be taken 
into consideration under all their acts, surroundings, and conduct 
in order to try to arrive at the solution of this problem which 
compels a jury to go down into the hearts of men to find out 
what was there." 

The defendant Wallace was fonnd guilty and sentenced to 
twenty years in the penitentiary. 

The distribution of pamphlets contrary to the Espionage Act 
is taken up in Bulletin No. 71, in the charge to the jury in the 
case against G. A. Gneiser, Paul Bosco, et al., for distributing a 
pamphlet called "The Price We Pay," in West Virginia: 

"The fourth count charges that Paul Bosco did, after the- 
15th day of June, 1917, unlawfully and feloniously willfully make 
and convey a certain false report and false statement with 
intent to interfere with the operation and success of the mili- 
tary and naval forces of the United States, and which false 
report and false statement aforesaid was then and there known 
by the said Paul Bosco to be false and which said report and 
statement was to the effect that the war in which the United 
States was then engaged with the said Imperial German Govern- 
ment was a war brought on by and in behalf of the capi- 
talists and capitalistic system of the United States and in 
their interest and against the influence and voice of the ma- 
jority of the people of the United States, which said report 
and statement aforesaid was false and known by the said Paul 
Bosco to be false, and was circulated by him both verbally and 



The Espionage Act 149 

by means of certain written circulars and pamphlets, the exact 
and complete contents whereof is to the grand jurors unknown, 
and by him intended to cause and attempt to cause insubordina- 
tion, disloyalty, mutiny, and refusal of duty in the military and 
naval forces of the United States and to unlawfully obstruct the 
recruiting and enlistment service of the United States to the 
injury of the said service of the said United States. 

"And it is further charged that the said G. A. Gneiser 'did 
unlawfully and feloniously aid, counsel, and abet the said Paul 
Bosco in making and conveying the said false report and state- 
ment aforesaid with the intent and purpose and in the manner 
in all respects as hereinbefore in this count set out.' And in 
support of this there has been introduced and especially dwelt 
upon a circular, entitled 'The Price We Pay,' and a petition 
which it is admitted by the defendant himself he circulated and 
secured subscriptions to a fund the purpose of which it is 
alleged was for the purpose of purchasing and circulating liter- 
ature as expressed in that petition. 

"Now you are to determine the following: First, whether 
these reports and statements were false. Second, that they 
were known to be false by Bosco and that they were made and 
circulated by him for the purpose of interfering with the re- 
cruiting and enlistment service of the United States and to 
•create insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty 
in the military and naval forces of the United States. Third, 
whether the defendant, G. A. Gneiser, aided, abetted, and coun- 
seled him, the said Bosco, in the circulation of such false state- 
ments and reports. 

"And if the evidence convinces you beyond a reasonable doubt 
that Gneiser did so aid, counsel, and abet the said Paul Bosco in 
circulating such false circulars, statements, and reports, then it 
will be your duty to find him guilty under this fourth count. If 
not, then it will be your duty to find him not guilty thereon." 

In this case Gneiser was found not guilty; Bosco was found 
guilty and sentenced to ten years in the penitentiary. 

This same pamphlet, "The Price We Pay/' is taken up in Bul- 
letins 15 and 52, and the problems of what constitutes conspiracy 
and wilful obstruction carefully analyzed. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
LEGAL EECOGNITION OF PROPAGANDA AS A CRIME. 

The study of all of these bulletins fails to show a legal recogni- 
tion of the power of hostile propaganda as such. 

The word propaganda rarely occurs indeed. But it appears in 
its true historical significance throughout discussions in Congress in 
May, 1918, when a successful effort was made to revise the Espion- 
age Act so as to meet an evil that had gone too long unchecked. 

Two ways were available for overcoming the influence of 
propaganda : one to meet it with counter-propaganda, the other to 
punish its agents. 

Much has been done in this country in the way of positive propa- 
ganda for expounding our aims, our wrongs, our ambitions, our 
achievements, but propaganda for the purposes of assassinating our 
enemies is an uncongenial weapon that we have done well to leave 
to the Germans who have mastered it so thoroughly. 

The problem of punishing hostile propagandists is complex. The 
Espionage Act as originally passed did not seem to cover the situa- 
tion and the Department of Justice asked for better statutes. The 
Overman Bill was prepared to meet the emergency. 

THE OVERMAN BILL AND THE FRANCE AMENDMENT. 

Senator France put forward an amendment which threatened 
for a time to nullify the bill. This amendment read : "Provided, 
however. That nothing in this act shall be construed as limiting 
the liberty or impairing the right of any individual to publish or 
speak what is true, with good motives and for justifiable ends." 

The amendment was adversely reported by a conference com- 
mittee and was defeated after a memorable debate in the Senate 
in the course of which so much was uttered concerning the menace 
of propaganda that somewhat liberal quotations from the Con- 
gressional Record of May 4, 1918, should be placed here, especially 
as their eloQuence and profundity of thought mark this as one of 
'ihe great encounters of theory with theory in the history of human 
/iberty. It is impossible to quote the entire debate and only a 
brief citation is made from the advocate of the France amend- 
ment, whose full remarks* can be found in the Record, but the 
following excerpts are both searching and pertinent as well as loftily 
considered and expressed. 

150 



Legal Recognition 151 

Senator Thomas, of Colorado, said in part: 

"We are told by the departments that the present statute is 
inefficient and practically inoperative, and that unless something 
of this kind is added to the espionage law it will fail to produce 
the consequences intended. We have had our attention called 
to the inefficacy of the existing section 3, not only in a general 
way but by way of specific instance. That statute seemed to me, 
at the time it was accepted by the Senate, to be sufficient for 
the purpose. It may be, however, that experience has demon- 
strated that we were wrong. I do not know. I will read it: 

" 'Whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully 
make or convey false reports or false statements with intent to 
interfere with the operation or success of the military or naval 
forces of the United States or to promote the success of its ene- 
mies, and whoever, when the United States is at war, shall will- 
fully cause or attempt to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mu- 
tiny, or refusal of duty, in the military or naval forces of the 
United States, or shall willfully obstruct the recruiting or enlist- 
ment service of the United States, to the injury of the service or of 
the United States, shall be punished by a fine of not more than 
$10,000 or imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both.' 

"Mr. President, the condition of the country, due in large 
part to the fact that we are not a homogeneous people and that 
one section, or a part of one section, of our population is avow- 
edly disloyal and engaged in active enemy propaganda, is the 
only possible excuse, in my judgment, for this legislation. We 
should be sensible of the requirements of our institutions and 
constantly on guard for their protection in times of war, when, 
of all times, free institutions need safeguarding. There are, 
however, exceptions to all general rules, and this may be one of 
them. I am not prepared to say that it is, but I must recog- 
nize the existence of a situation that is both unique and dan- 
gerous. 

"Mr. President, I have had occasion to say at a previous time 
that the enemy known as pan-Germanism is far more danger- 
ous to the allied forces than the troops of the Kaiser upon the 
western front. I have had occasion to illustrate that statement 
by referring to the fate of Russia and to the terrible disaster 
to the Italian arms last October, and also to the seething mass 
of dissatisfaction which is being carefully and constantly fo- 
mented in all allied countries. Germany, now conceded to have 
been the aggressor in this war, aims, as Bernhardi declared 
she should aim back in 1911, at world dominion; and Germany 
has prepared herself for her attempt at world dominion by 
nearly a half .century of careful, constant, and meticulous prep- 
aration. There is nothing of which mankind is capable, no great 
advance sociologically, economically, industrially, politically, or 
commercially which Germany has not long ago drafted into her 
general scheme of world dominion and military preparation 
therefor. 

"Forty years ago pan-Germanism began its pernicious course, 
with the result that every German, and as far as possible every 
descendant of every German, in every country in the world, has 
been utilized or sought to be utilized in the general scheme of 
Germanic world conquest. The Machiavellian philosophy, so 
called, has, ever since the time of B'rederick the Great, been the 
accepted scheme of German activity; and it has been improved 
upon by Bismarck and by the present Kaiser to a degree that 



152 Propaganda 

would astonish the author of that policy if he could be made 
aware of that development. 

"I happened to be in the city of Washington a few years ago 
when Prince Henry of Prussia, representing his imperial brother, 
visited the United States. It was my good fortune to sit in 
yonder gallery when he was ushered into this Hall by a committee 
of which the then chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations 
was the leader and to listen to his words of amity and good will 
toward the United States — a speech the earnestness and sincerity 
of which were at the time never doubted, and which, of course, 
contributed almost entirely to the cordial reception which he 
received, both at the hands of public functionaries and at the 
hands of private citizens everywhere. And yet we now know, 
we long since have known, that the visit of Prince Henry to 
this country was not for the purposes ostensibly announced, but 
for the purpose of clinching and making more effective that 
American section of pan-Germanism that owes its allegiance first 
to the Kaiser, and second, if any allegiance be left, to the United 
States of America. We know now why he visited the principal 
cities of the United States where German population is in the 
aggregate far greater than in other sections, and why his visit 
and its purposes have been followed up and stimulated ever 
since. We did not suspect it then. Indeed, one of the marvels 
in which posterity will indulge will be the utter indifference 
with which the people of other countries, without exception, per- 
mitted pan-Germanism to continue and develop, all in the inter- 
. est of the Fatherland; and that wonder, Mr. President, will be 
perhaps more complete when the statements, which should have 
been warnings, made long before the war, were available to all 
thinking and reading people. 

"Gen. Bernhardi, in his how famous work, 'Germany in the 
Next War,' published in 1911, referring to the Germans beyond 
the Empire, said: 

" 'The further duty of supporting the Germans in foreign 
countries in their struggle for existence and of thus keeping 
them loyal to their nationality is one from which, in our indi- 
rect Interests, we can not withdraw. The isolated groups of 
Germans abroad greatly benefit our trade, since by preference 
they obtain their goods from Germany; but they may also be 
useful to us politically, as we discover in America. The Ameri- 
can Germans have formed a political alliance with the Irish 
and thus united constitute a power in the State with which the 
Government must reckon.' 

"The junior Senator from Utah (Mr. King) can speak much , 
more intelligently and forcefully than can I regarding the activi- 
ties of the German-American Alliance in the United States; and 
we do know that in the interval between the general declaration 
of war and our entry into it, the activities of certain Irishmen 
and of certain Germans in the great cities of the country, par- 
ticularly during the last political campaign, confirm the asser- 
tion of Bernhardi almost to the letter. 

"Of course, Mr. President, I must always be understood as 
exempting those patriotic and liberty-loving Germans and Irish- 
men and the descendants of Germans and of Irishmen from the 
general indictment of pan-Germanism; but after that excep- 
tion is made there is too much of it, far too much of it, per- 
niciously active at all times. 

"These forces are constantly interfering to prevent the United 
States throwing its whole force into this struggle and to prevent 



Legal Recofjnition 153 

unity of American citizenship at liome. I liave not the time to refer 
to the many incidents, the many terrible events, crowding each 
upon the heels of the other since the debacle of August, 1914, 
began; but I do know, and every observing man in America 
knows, that the poison of quiet and sometimes of vociferous 
criticism of men and of measures, the dissemination of views 
regarding the operation of the draft law, the power of the Gov- 
ernment to use its military forces outside of the jurisdiction of 
the United States, the spread of rumors of all sorts regarding 
the condition of our soldiery, the sanitary situation in their 
camps, and the thousand and one things which the devilish ac- 
tivities of a great section of our people suggest to others go far- 
ther in a country like this to diffuse and to weaken our energies 
than in a country like Great Britain, whose population is largely 
homogeneous. 

"In America we have people from every section and every 
country on the earth, and we have been so indifferent to our 
own duties of citizenship as to permit them to remain segre- 
gated, to use their language and not our language, and to 
conduct themselves practically as foreign communities within 
our midst. That is the ripest soil that can be imagined for the 
dissemination of treasonable and semi-treasonable utterances and 
propaganda. 

"If I understand the purpose of section 3, as presented by 
the conference report, it is to meet and if possible overcome 
that situation as far as the present legislation can overcome 
it, and therefore this report has been agreed upon. 

"Mr. President, we do not enact laws against murder and 
make crimes of larceny in order to interfere with the rights but 
rather to protect the rights of the law-abiding, tax-paying citi- 
zens. Those laws are necessarily general. They must be com- 
prehensive, else they would consist of class legislation and be 
both unjust and ineffective. So with legislation of this charac- 
ter; it must be made sufficiently comprehensive to include 
everybody — the white, the black, the rich, the poor, the Jew, 
the Gentile. It will probably bear, it may bear, heavily upon 
those who with the best of intentions express their opinions 
concerning government and governmental functions. It may go 
too far — and I am afraid it does — but I sympathize, in view of 
the experiences of the past year, very strongly with that con- 
dition which has prompted the Government to ask legislation 
of this sort. 

"Mr. President, when this bill was passed by the Senate, sec- 
tion 3 contained the following proviso: 

" 'That nothing in this act shall be construed as limiting the 
liberty or impairing the right of any individual to publish or 
speak what is true with good motives and for justifiable ends.' 

"That is an amendment which was presented, if I recollect 
rightly, by the junior Senator from Maryland (Mr. France), 
and it was accepted by the Senator having charge of the bill, 
in consequence of which I do not think it attracted much 
attention or much criticism. I remember that I favored it men- 
tally and at the time regarded it as a beneficial addition to 
the section. But since it has become a pivot of active contro- 
versy I have taken occasion to look into the phraseology of it 
a little more closely, and my conclusion is that it should have 
been eliminated: 

" 'Provided, That nothing in this act shall be construed as 
limiting the liberty or impairing the right of any individual to 



154 Propaganda 

publish or speak what is true with good motives and for jus- 
tifiable ends.' 

"Mr. President, iatent is essential to the constitution of all 
crimes, great and small. Motive may be important as determin- 
ing intent or it may not. The ideas, however, conveyed by the 
two words are by no means identical. A man with the best of 
motives may commit a serious crime and his purpose may be, 
in his opinion, justifiable; that is, he may act from pure mo- 
tives and justifiable ends. I may be a neighbor of the Senator 
from South Carolina, and I may imagine that his house con- 
tains germs of some very infectious disease which unless re- 
moved may subject the members of my family to infection and 
to disease and death. The Senator, however, is indifferent to 
my appeals for fumigation and also to the apprehensions which 
I entertain, and since he will not act I set his house on fire. 
My motive is to protect my family, and that is a justifiable end; 
yet who will say that under such circumstances the laws 
of South Carolina would not reach forth and take possession of 
my person, imprison and try me, and convict me of the crime 
of arson? 

"A German-American, or a man who is not a German-Amer- 
ican but sympathizing with the Germans, may with the best of 
motives acquire information regarding the state of our muni- 
tion factories and publish the facts to the world. His motive 
is perfectly good. He wants to help the cause with which he 
sympathizes, and the end justifies the means in his instance. 
He publishes these facts. Could he be convicted under a stat- 
ute containing such a proviso? I doubt it very much, Mr. Presi- 
dent. It is not necessary to multiply instances because they 
would occur to any thinking man by the thousand. 

"Mr. OVERMAN. I should like to call attention to the charge 
of a judge to a jury. This is from a great Vermont judge: 

" 'The Government's evidence tends to show that the defend- 
ant intended to cause insubordination, disloyalty and refusal of 
duty in the military forces of the United States; the defendant's 
evidence tends to show that the only intention which he had was 
to serve God. 

" 'You should be careful not to mix motive with intent. Motive 
is that which leads to the act; intent qualifies it. A crime may 
be committed with a good motive; it may be committed with an 
evil motive; or it may be committed with a good and an evil motive. 
To illustrate: The father of a large family steals bread for his 
starving children and also to deprive the owner of its value. He 
has two motives; one is good and one is evil; but he is guilty, not- 
withstanding he has a good motive, as well as an evil motive, 
for he must not steal at all. So in this case the defendant's inten- 
tion to serve God does not excuse him if you find that he also 
intended to cause insubordination, disloyalty or refusal of duty.' 

"This is a concrete case. At the time of this trial if this 
amendment had been the law the judge could not have made the 
charge he did, and the jury could not have convicted, as it did, 
and the man would have gotten off. That is a concrete case. 

"Mr. GALLINGER. The man was not released? 

"Mr. OVERMAN. He was not released because there was not 
any amendment like this in the law. He would have been re- 
leased if this amendment had been the law. 

"Mr. STERLING. Mr. President, I think Senators in opposing 
this amendment and in opposing striking out the amendment of 



Legal Recognition 155 

the Senator from Maryland have fears in regard to the operation 
of the law which are quite groundless. No loyal, patriotic citizen 
need fear the operation o£ this law, because he will not utter 
abusive or scurrilous or contemptuous language about the form of 
our Government or the Army and Navy of the United States or 
indulge in any of the other things prohibited by the terms of the 
bill. No loyal, patriotic editor or publisher of a paper need fear 
the operations of the bill, because he, as a loyal, patriotic citizen, 
will not publish abusive, scurrilous or contemptuous language in 
regard to the form of Government or the Constitution or the 
Army or the Navy of the United States. 

"No more, Mr. President, need such a man or such an editor 
fear the operation of this law than the average good moral citizen 
need fear the operation of a law against murder or arson 
or larceny or embezzlement or any other crime in the cal- 
endar of crimes, and that for the simple reason that the law, 
made necessary for the peace and good order of society, will not 
affect him. He will not violate the law, and the law is made only 
for the disloyal, the treasonable and the seditious. 

"Treason against the United States is defined as levying war 
against the United States or adhering to their enemies, giving 
them aid and comfort, and beyond and outside the constitutional 
provision in regard to . treason and the statutes enacted 
in pursuance of the constitutional provision come these acts, 
seditious and disloyal, which can not be prosecuted under a 
charge of treason because they fall just a little short of treason. 
And yet they do all the injury which treason itself would do. 
The loyal people realize this and grow impatient because there 
is no adequate law. There has come a demand from my own 
State, from every part of my State, that some such law as this 
shall be passed to make seditious and disloyal utterances impos- 
sible. 

"Here is a class of cases that has been brought to my atten- 
tion again and again. Some have arisen in my State. There 
are men who are at heart disloyal, who make certain utterances 
in derision of the Red Cross work, of subscriptions to the Liberty 
loan, of the cause for which we are fighting and so forth; they 
are absolutely disloyal. Now, in an otherwise thoroughly loyal 
community, what is the disposition with regard to characters of 
that kind? Seeing that there is no law on the statute books to 
punish these seditious and disloyal utterances, citizens are 
tempted, in order that the community may be rid of an evil of 
that kind, to take the law into their own hands. 

"Mr. LODGE. If the Senator will allow me, the fact that 
there is a law on the statute books is not what prevents lynch- 
ing. What prevents lynching is the public confidence that the 
law on the statute books will be enforced. If the law is not 
enforced, people lose all faith in the courts; they lose all faith 
in the prosecuting officers, and they take the law into their 
own hands. This, however, is all part of the general idea that 
seems to run through this war that we can fight it with language. 

"Mr. KING. I desire to say to the Senator from Massachu- 
setts (Mr. Lodge) that in my opinion the Attorney General has 
been doing all within his power to enforce existing statutes. I 
know that he has been keenly alive to the situation and has in- 
voked the criminal statutes and all the machinery at his com- 
mand to deal with disloyalists and those who have violated Fed- 
eral statutes. Perhaps in some of the States the district «ttor- 



156 Propaganda 

neys, either through inexperience in dealing with this class of 
cases or because of their belief that the law was inadequate — 
and my own opinion is that i» many instances it has been inade- 
quate — to deal with existing conditions, have failed to effectively 
deal with all cases brought to their attention. I am satisfied, as 
the result of an exhaustive examination of the activities of the 
I. W. W. and other disloyal organizations and persons, and exist- 
ing laws under which efforts to reach these organizations and 
individuals, that additional statutes are needed. Unfortunately 
there are some enemies in our midst. They work in secret, and 
in every possible way to oppose our Government and to cripple 
it in the prosecution of the war. The conditions existing call 
for legislation to supplement present criminal statutes. This 
legislation, in my opinion, goes a long way toward meeting the 
situation. It is not perfect, and filling up the hiatus that exists 
and supplementing existing statutes does not meet my views in 
all respects, but it will prove effective and be a necessary and 
powerful weapon in the hands of the Government to enable it to 
prosecute individuals who are spreading sedition and trying to 
undermine the faith of the people in the integrity of our Nation 
and aid our enemies in this mighty conflict. 

"With the effort that has been made in good faith by the Post 
Office Department to exclude from the mails treasonable and dis- 
loyal publications, it cannot be charged that it has failed in its 
duty. Indeed, if we are to believe the eminent Senator from 
Illinois (Mr. Sherman), the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Borah), 
the Senator from California (Mr. Johnson), the activities of the 
Post Office Department in its denial of the privileges of the mails 
to publications have been too rigorous; another criticism has 
been made by some that the Post Office Department has excluded 
from the mails publications with which no fault could be found. 
I know that the greatest caution is exercised by Judge Lamar 
and the legal advisers of the Postmaster General in Washington 
as to what shall be excluded from the mails. There can be no 
legitimate criticism of their actions. Frequently their decisions 
have been reviewed by the courts; but, as I am informed, the 
courts have uniformly supported them. 

"The Postmaster General acts only upon legal advice in ex- 
cluding from the mails publications, literature, fraud orders, 
letters and other objectionable matter, which the law clearly 
points out. His action is subject to review by the court; and 
under this bill no different power is conferred upon him than 
that granted in statutes enacted in years gone by. 

"In the United States today there are between 1,500 and 1,600 
foreign-language newspapers! In addition, there are hundreds 
of papers published in the English language. It is impossible, 
with the limited resources at the command of the Postmaster 
General, to scrutinize with that care that perhaps the situation 
demands every issue of every paper as soon as it is deposited in 
the mails. 

"Now and then. Indeed frequently, newspapers that ought to 
be excluded will get into the mails, one issue or perhaps two or 
three issues. 

"The Judiciary Committee has reported favorably the bill for 
the revocation of the charter of the German-American National 
Alliance, and at the earliest possible moment I shall ask the 
attention of the Senate to the consideration of that bill, with a 
view to having it passed. 



Legal Recognition 157 

"In a number of States since the German-American Alliance 
voluntarily attempted to suspend — and of course Senators will 
realize that it can not do that, because it exists in virtue of a 
Congressional charter, and a mere voluntary meeting of some of 
the members and agreeing to dissolve would not effectuate a dis- 
solution of the organization; that could only be done by legisla- 
tive declaration, or possibly by judicial decree, although I doubt 
that it could be thus dissolved — some of the subordinate organiza- 
tions, State organizations, and some of the local organizations, 
have determined to continue their activities. In some few in- 
stances, I am told, local societies have changed their names 
with the idea of proceeding along the same lines under some 
other name. 

"In Pennsylvania the name of one of the local organizations 
was changed to some historical association or an association for 
the purpose of studying the relation of nations to each other. 
It would seem that there are a number of members of the parent 
or affiliated organizations who are determined to preserve the 
spirit of the old organization under a different form and a 
different name. I sincerely hope that the States and the loyal 
Americans of German birth and ancestry will see to it that no 
organization shall be permitted for the purpose of spreading 
Pan-Germanism or waging a propaganda for the destruction of 
this Nation and the superimposition upon this country and the 
world of the policies, the tyranny and the military despotism 
which finds expression in the rule of the present German 
Kaiser. The German-American National Alliance should be dis- 
solved. Its work in our Nation was destructive and disinte- 
grating. It stood not for America and American ideals, but rep- 
resented rather the spirit and kultur of modern Germany. 

"Mr. STERLING. Mr. President, if I may be allowed to pro- 
ceed, I sympathize quite thoroughly with the sentiment ex- 
pressed, and implied, too, in the statement of the Senator from 
Illinois (Mr. Sherman), and also with what has been said by the 
Senator from Utah (Mr. King). I have the honor of being a mem- 
ber of the subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee which has 
had under investigation the German-American National Alli- 
ance. You have but to take the charter and read the glowing 
purposes for which that association was organized under the 
terms of the charter, and then compare that with their deeds 
and their influence, to be convinced that it is an instrument of 
activities wholly prejudicial to our Government and to our in- 
stitutions. Not one dollar has even been spent in the furtherance 
of any one of the purposes set forth in the charter; that, I think, 
clearly appears from the testimony; but thousands, running 
into hundreds of thousands, of dollars have been collected for 
purposes wholly foreign to the interests of this country, and 
in many instances adverse to the interests of this country. 

"Mr. President, the great value of the act will probably not 
lie so much in actual prosecutions under it, although there may 
be now and then a case, but it will be in the great deterrent 
effect it will have in preventing the commission of these offenses, 
thus bringing the Government of the United States in time of 
war or the Constitution of the United States or the Army and 
Navy of the United States into disrepute, when, indeed, we 
should be in our full vigor, with the morale and the physical 
and, I may say, mental strength of the Armj'^ at the maximum 
rather than to have either injured in any way whatever by 
utterances and publications such as this bill would prohibit. 



158 Propaganda 

"Mr. FRANCE. Mr. President, I do not wish to prolong the 
debate upon this conference report, but I desire to make a very 
brief statement with reference to it in order that the Record 
may very clearly show the exact status of this report and the 
brief history of it since the 9th day of April, when I offered 
an amendment to this bill, which is now before us as the con- 
ference report. 

"On the 9th day of April, realizing that this was a most 
drastic measure — far more drastic, as has been shown by the 
Senator from Missouri (Mr. Reed) during the course of the 
debate, than the old sedition law — realizing that this was a far 
more drastic measure than that, I desired to see incorporated 
in the bill language which in a definite and specific way would 
assure the people of the country that this legislation was not 
intended to deprive them of those rights which are clearly guar- 
anteed to them under the first amendment to the Constitution. 
Upon the 9th of April the Senate, after a sufficient discussion, 
for a prolonged discussion was unnecessary, rejected the amend- 
ment under discussion by a vote of 31 to 33. On the following 
day, however, after the Senate had been given an opportunity 
to consider the matter further, this amendment, numbered 6, 
was adopted by the Senate without a dissenting vote." 

"I wish the Record to show that the Senate rejected this 
amendment; that it then unanimously adopted it; and then, 
through its conferees, it receded from the amendment, and that 
now the Senate is about to adopt the conference report with 
this amendment omitted from it. 

"I think it would be very unfortunate, after the adoption of 
this amendment, whether it was material in the first place or 
not, if the Senate should now go on record as being against 
preserving the right of the American people to 'speak what is 
true, with good motives and for justifiable ends.' Not only would 
it be unfortunate if the Senate should be placed in such a posi- 
tion, but I think the effect of such action would be most unfor- 
tunate so far as the prosecution of the war is concerned; and 
in giving my reasons for that I desire to quote what was quoted 
on April 19 of last year by the distinguished Senator from 
Idaho (Mr. Borah) in a masterly address on this subject on the 
freedom of speech and the freedom of the press. I desire to 
quote it, because I think it is pertinent in this connection, for 
it indicates very clearly one reason why I feel that the adop- 
tion of this conference report with this amendment eliminated 
would be most unfortunate as far as the prosecution of the war 
is concerned: 

" 'Sir James Mcintosh, in the Peltier case, observed as follows: 

" ' "To inform the public on the conduct of those who admin- 
ister public affairs requires courage and conscious security. It 
is always an invidious and obnoxious office, but it is often the 
most necessary of all public duties. If it is not done boldly, 
it can not be done effectually, and it is not from writers trem- 
bling under the uplifted scourge that we are to hope for it." ' 

"There seems to be a very great misunderstanding on the 
part of some of the learned Senators, particularly those learned 
in the law, as to the meaning of this amendment. They have 
insisted on discussing the subject of motive apart from the sub- 
ject of the truth, which, of course, results in a failure to grasp 
the meaning of this amendment, which, to be properly under- 
stood, must be taken as a whole. In order that there may be 
no misunderstanding as to the meaning of this amendment, I 



Legal Recognition 159 

desire to quote this language of Chief Justice Story, language 
which he uses with reference to the first amendment of the 
Constitution, which explains clearly this amendment; and, in- 
deed, you will note that the language of my amendment was 
borrowed from this statement of the Chief Justice: 

" 'It is plain, then, that the language of this amendment im- 
ports no more than that every man shall have a right to speak, 
write, and print his opinions upon any subject whatsoever, with- 
out any prior restraint, so always that he does not injure any 
other person in his rights, person, property, or reputation; and 
so always that he does not thereby disturb the public peace or 
attempt to subvert the Government. It is neither more nor less 
than an expansion of the great doctrine recently brought into 
operation in the law of libel, that every man shall be at lib- 
erty to publish what is true, with good motives, and for justi- 
fiable ends. And with this reasonable limitation it is not only 
right in itself, but it is an inestimable privilege in a free gov- 
ernment. Without such limitation it might become the scourge 
of the Republic, first denouncing the principles of liberty, and 
then, by rendering the most virtuous patriots odious through 
the terrors of the press, introducing despotism in its worst form.' 

"Referring, of course, to the freedom-of-speech section of the 
first amendment to the Constitution, 

"He goes on to say: 

" 'A little attention to the history of other countries in other 
ages will teach us the vast importance of this right. It is noto- 
rious that even to this day in some foreign countries it is a 
crime to speak on any subject, religious, philosophical, or politi- 
cal, what is contrary to the received opinions of the Govern- 
ment or the institutions of the country, however laudable may 
be the design and however virtuous may be the motive.' 

"Mr. President, I had not expected to occupy even this much 
time, but I desire to say just this word further: 

"We have fallen into the habit of using this sort of logic in 
the Congress: 'We are at war. We -all wish to win the war. 
This measure will help win the war. Therefore we must adopt 
this measure'; and the corollary: That any man who is not in 
favor of this measure is against winning the war. 

"Mr. KING. Mr. President 

"The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the Senator from Mary- 
land yield to the Senator from Utah? 

"Mr. FRANCE. Certainly. 

"Mr. KING. The Senator has just quoted from Judge Story 
with respect to the freedom of the press and the freedom of 
speech. Would it be displeasing to the Senator for me at this 
point to call his attention to another statement of Judge Story 
in the second volume of his work on constitutional law? 

"Mr. FRANCE. Not at all. I shall be pleased to have it 
added to the Record. 

"Mr. KING. Judge Story uses this language; 

" 'There is a good deal of loose reasoning on the subject of 
the liberty of the press, as if its inviolability were constitu- 
tionally such that, like the King of England, it could do no 
wrong and was free from every inquiry and afforded a perfect 
sanctuary for every abuse; that, in short, it implied a despotic 
sovereignty to do every sort of wrong without the slightest 
accountability to private or public justice. Such a notion is too 
extravagant to be held by any sound constitutional lawyer — ' 



160 Propaganda 



"And, I may say in parenthesis, by any good, loyal Ameri- 
can citizen. 

" 'Such a notion is too extravagant to be held by any sound 
constitutional lawyer with regard to the rights and duties 
belonging to governments generally or the State governments 
in particular. If it were admitted to be correct, it might be 
justly affirmed that the liberty of the press was incompatible 
with the permanent existence of any free government. * * * 
In short, is it contended that the liberty of the press is so much 
more valuable than all other rights in society that the public 
safety — nay, the existence of the Government itself — is to yield 
to it? It would be difficult to answer these questions in favor 
of the liberty of the press without at the same time declaring 
that such a license belonged, and could only belong, to a des- 
potism, and was utterly incompatible with the principles of a 
free government.' 

"I thank the Senator for permitting me to put that into the 
Record. 

"Mr. FRANCE. I thank the Senator from Utah; and I will 
say in reply that I am familiar with that language, which is 
merely an extension of what -I read. I should have been very 
glad to have read the more extended quotation, but it was not 
necessary for my purpose. That was the position occupied by 
the Chief Justice; and, taking that very position, he also took 
the position that this right must be preserved — the right of 
every citizen to 'publish or speak what is true, from good mo- 
tives and for justifiable ends.' That is what the Chief Justice 
insisted upon in connection with the very language quoted by 
the Senator from Utah. 

"I shall not go into the subject of the constitutionality of this 
measure. 

"Mr. WALSH. Mr. President^ 

"The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the Senator from Mary- 
land yield to the Senator from Montana? 

"Mr. FRANCE. With pleasure. 

"Mr. WALSH. Inasmuch as the Senator from Maryland is 
the author of this clause that has been so much discussed, I 
should like to ask him if he will kindly give the Senate a con- 
crete case in which one who is entitled to do so would be em- 
barrassed in making a just defense with this language not in 
the act. 

"Mr. FRANCE. It would give me pleasure to do so. I do 
not care, however, to do so with any degree of explicitness, for 
reasons which I need not go into now. I will say, however, 
that if an editorial which was read the other day from the 
New York Times — which to my mind clearly indicated possible 
misconduct on the part of certain officials of this Government, 
and which closed with the statement to the effect that if these 
suspicions were justified these men should be dealt with crimi- 
nally — if that editorial had gone further and had mentioned the 
names of these gentlemen, I do not believe that the writer of it 
could have claimed exemption from the operation of this law, if 
under this proposed law he had been subjected to prosecution. 

"Mr. WALSH. If that is the instance the Senator has in 
mind, I should like to inquire of him under what particular pro- 
vision of this bill the editor of the New York Times stands in 
any peril? 

"Mr. FRANCE. 1 did not care to go into this subject any 
more fully, because specific instances 



Legal Recognition 161 

"Mr. WALSH. Of course, these are very practical questions 
that we are dealing with. 

"Mr. FRANCE. This is a very practical question; but the 
Senator is well aware that I do not care to bring to the bar 
of the Senate any paper or any official at this time; and for 
that reason it is unfair for me to enter into any extended dis- 
cussion of any particular case. The Senator from Montana will 
realize the justice of that. 

"Mr. WALSH. The Senator referred to the editorial appear- 
ance in the New York Times 

"Mr. FRANCE. Yes. 

"Mr. WALSH. A very proper criticism, it seems to me, of 
some of the officers of the Government connected with the prose- 
cution of the war; but, as I asked a moment ago, under what 
provision of the bill does the editor of that paper stand in any 
peril? 

"Mr. FRANCE. I will read the language to the Senator, elimi- 
nating what is not relevant: 

" 'Whoever * * * shall * * * publish ♦ * ♦ abus- 
ive language about the * * * military * * * forces of 
the United States * * * .' 

"It seems to me that it is somewhat abusive, to say the least, 
to indicate that certain members of the military forces — if 
that is a fair interpretation of the editorial — should be sub- 
jected to criminal prosecution for their acts. 

"Mr. WALSH. Why, Mr. President, that idea could be ex- 
pressed in the most refined and unexceptional language. There 
is no fault to be found with the language in which it is charged. 

"Mr. FRANCE. I am not saying that in my judgment there 
has been any abusive language. 

"Mr. WALSH. I was going to say, if it were abusive, it 
would not be permitted to be read here in the Senate. There 
was nothing abusive about the language, however severe it may 
have been. 

"Mr. FRANCE. I have the very highest regard for the legal 
opinion of the Senator from Montana, and I had not expected 
to occupy so much time. I realize that opinions may well differ 
with reference to particular phraseology. 1 was about to say 
that I do not care to go into any constitutional discussion on 
this subject. I think it is very clear, however, that under the 
Constitution of the United States the States did not delegate 
to the Federal Government the right to pass laws limiting the 
freedom of speech and the freedom of the press. Upon this 
both Hamilton and Jefferson, who rarely agreed, were in com- 
plete agreement. 

"At a time like this, Mr. President, we are in grave danger 
of getting to the point where we are not a sovereign Senate. 
We are a Senate representing sovereign States, and those States 
are nothing but the creation of a sovereign people. Such legis- 
lation as this, to my mind, can only be possible when that 
great truth has been forgotten. Our sovereigns lie out yonder, 
and it is their sovereign will as voiced by them which we 
must express in legislation, by such legislation giving direction 
to executive action. Neither the legislative nor the executive 
departments of this Government is sovereign, but the sover- 
eigns whose will we are here expressing in legislation are the 
people of the United States. 

"I hesitate to pass any legislation by which we would place 
a rough hand upon that sovereign people and say to them, 'Be 



162 Propaganda 



still! This is the Senate's war; this is the Executive's war. 
This is a Washington war.' Senators, what a fallacy! This 
proposed legislation arises from a total misconception of the 
very nature of modern war, a misconception which in my opin- 
ion has been responsible for many of the mistakes which have 
been made. 

"War* is no longer a matter of armies; it is a matter of 
whole nations; and we can not win this war with one, two, 
three, or four million men in France. We can only win it by 
calling into the combat all the great resources of the Ameri- 
can people. We can only win it by a great organization and a 
united Nation. I am opposed to this legislation, because I 
believe it makes not for unity but for disorganization and for 
disintegration. 

"I wish to refer briefly to the history of the old sedition 
law of 1798 and to quote the words of Hamilton, which com- 
pletely express my views upon the pending legislation. Ham- 
ilton no sooner saw the sedition law which had been introduced 
into Congress than he wrote: 

" 'Let us not establish tyranny. Energy is a very different 
thing from violence. If we make no false step, we shall be 
essentially united; but if we push things to extremes, we shall 
then give to faction body and solidity.' 

"Mr. President, I shall not take the time of the Senate to 
trace all of the disintegrating influences which followed the en- 
actment of the old alien and sedition law; to tell you how it 
then almost resulted in the dissolution of the Republic and how, 
because of the enactment of that law, there was born that doc- 
trine of nulliflcation and secession which so many years later 
almost destroyed the Union. It was the opposition of Thomas 
Jefferson to that law which led to the first sowing of the seeds 
of the pernicious doctrine that the States could nullify the ac- 
tion of the Federal Government. It is important, however, to 
remember that the old sedition law was much less drastic than 
the law which we are now enacting, for Bayard in the House of 
Representatives proposed an amendment, which was adopted, 
allowing the truth to be offered in evidence. My dear friend, 
the Senator from Minnesota (Mr. Nelson), for whose motives I 
have the highest regard, one of the men who did not hesitate to 
offer his breast to the enemy when the perpetuity of the Union 
was threatened, has said that the evil of sedition exists and 
that we must find a remedy. 

"Physicians know that there is a remedy for every evil, but 
they must constantly decide the problem as to whether the ap- 
plication of that remedy will improve the condition of the pa- 
tient or not, or whether the remedy will be worse than the 
disease. This proposed remedy, I believe, Mr. President, would 
do harm, for it is intended to eliminate certain evils, while it 
would indeed extirpate at the same time the necessary function 
of free discussion by word of mouth and by the press, which is 
so indispensable at this time. 

"In this connection I desire to read a statement of Franklin: 

" 'Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free govern- 
ment; when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free 
society is dissolved and tyranny is erected on its ruins. Repub- 
lics and limited monarchies derive their strength and vigor from 
a popular examination into the action of the magistrates; this 
privilege in all ages has been and always will be abused. The 
best of men could not escape the censure and envy of the times 



Legal Recognition 163 

they lived in. Yet this evil is not so great as it might appear at 
first sight. A magistrate who sincerely aims at the good of so- 
ciety will always have the inclinations of a great majority on his 
side, and an impartial posterity will not fail to render him jus- 
tice. Those abuses of the freedom of speech are the excesses of 
liberty. They ought to be repressed — ' 

"This is the point — these abuses ought to be repressed' — 
'but to whom dare we commit the care of doing it? An evil 
magistrate, entrusted with power to punish for words, would be 
armed with a weapon the most destructive and terrible. Under 
pretense of pruning off the exuberant branches he would be apt 
to destroy the tree. (Franklin, Works by Sparks, Vol. II, p. 285.)' 

"Mr. President, on my files dealing with this subject I have a 
valued quotation from the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Thomas), 
for whose opinion I entertain a very high regard. He said on 
April 18 of last year: 

" 'It is only in time of war that these great constitutional lim- 
itations upon despotism are put to the test. It is precisely then 
that they are useful. They have no particular moment in times 
of quiet, when the minds of men are diverted to the pursuits of 
peace, when prosperity and happiness smile over the land. It is 
only on occasions like this when they become effective and their 
value is priceless. Consequently it is at such times that we must 
see to it that they are preserved, lest when peace does return we 
shall realize that some of the most important safeguards of liberty 
have been swept away in the torrent of the conflict.' 

"Mr. President, I think the issue is clear. I think it is per- 
fectly clear that those who vote for this measure as altered at 
the behest and under the direction, as it seems to me, of Mr. 
John Lord O'Brian, of the Department of Justice, every man who 
votes for this conference report, in my judgment, votes for 
it because he has come to the conclusion, after careful de- 
liberation, that at this time of national peril it is not safe 
to allow the American people to 'speak v/hat is true from good 
motives and for justifiable ends.' I do not set my judgment 
against theirs, but I do desire to say for myself that I do not 
think that the voice of the people, of the sovereign people of 
this Republic, should be silenced at this time when the winning 
of the war depends not upon Congress, not upon the Executive, 
not upon Washington, but upon the masses of the sovereign peo- 
ple all over the Republic. I am thankful that I do not enter- 
tain such an opinion of that sovereign people that I dare in 
this hour to cast my vote to deprive them of that inalienable 
right to 'speak the truth from good motives and for justifiable 
ends.' 

"If the great party of Thomas Jefferson desires to place itself 
upon record as denying the people their inalienable right to speak 
'what is true for good motives and for justifiable ends,' then they 
will adopt this conference report. 

"Mr. OVERMAN. Mr. President, every Senator who votes 
against this conference report can have the satisfaction of 
knowing that he has voted for an amendment that will throw 
a cloak of protection around every spy in this country and every 
traitor and every Bolshevik and every I. W. W. that is denied to 
a loyal American citizen. 

"Mr. WADSWORTH. Mr. President, does the Senator really 
want to go upon record in that way? 



164 Propaganda 

"Mr. OVERMAN. I will strike out the word 'proud,' as I 
mean no disrespect to any Senator or intent to impeach in any 
way his patriotism. I say any Senator who votes for that will 
be heard to admit that he has voted for an amendment to a 
criminal statute that does not appear in any other criminal 
statute in the world and which gives the defense to a disloyal 
citizen that we heretofore in all our criminal statutes have never 
given to a loyal citizen. Does anyone deny that? Is not that the 
truth? 

"Mr. FRANCE. There is no Senator on the floor whose pur- 
poses at this time more nearly coincide with mine than the 
Senator from North Carolina. We are looking at this thing 
merely from different angles. 

"Mr. OVERMAN. I am not criticising any Senator's loyalty, 
or that any Senator has not as much loyalty as I have myself. 
I credit that to every Senator on this' floor, but I ask the Sen- 
ator if there is any criminal statute in the world that has ever 
been enacted containing such an amendment as this? Can he 
cite me one? 

"Mr. FRANCE. I will say in answer to the Senator that I do 
not believe there has been enacted in any country since the Dark 
Ages any criminal statute so framed as to make such an amend- 
ment necessary. 

"Mr. OVERMAN. I repeat it, that there is no criminal statute 
that was ever passed that has any such provision in it, and it 
is giving an additional burden to the Government that ought not 
to be given, and it is requiring proof that is not required in any 
other criminal statute in the world. 

"What is this statute for? It is a criminal statute. It is a 
statute that we have been trying to pass here for the beneflt of 
the Army and to preserve our country. We have been trying 
to pass it for 12 long months, and we have had to fight it out in 
the Senate for weeks and weeks. It went to the House of Rep- 
resentatives and comes back here and then goes into confer- 
ence, and here we have the same old fight again. There is 
delay, delay, delay, and the war is going on and the Kaiser at 
work in this country with his pernicious propaganda. 

"Why do you want to put an additional provision in here to 
threw additional burdens on the prosecuting officer of the Gov- 
ernment and give a new defense to all these men as to motives 
who are indicted, these German spies, the Bolshevik, and these 
I. W. W.'s? Why do you not let us have the same criminal stat- 
utes we have for everybody else? 

"The Senator from Colorado (Mr. Thomas) has made one of 
the most lucid arguments that have been made in the Senate 
on the subject. He showed clearly that nobody has been able to 
contend against him as to his argument that if this amendment 
is included in the bill it will work harm. I want to reinforce 
his argument by an additional letter sent here by the Attorney 
General. The Senator from Colorado made a great argument, 
and I want to reinforce that argument by putting in the Record 
the argument of the Attorney General on this subject. He gives 
concrete cases to show the harm it will work and how difficult it 
will be to convict these men. This criminal statute is for the 
purpose of convicting guilty men, not innocent men. No loyal 
citizen can be convicted under it, and under the amendment it is 
believed by many that guilty men will escape. Therefore there 
is no reason for putting such an amendment in the statute. 



Legal Recognition 165 

"Mr. KING. The Senator from Maryland (Mr. France) Just 
now said that outside of the Dark Ages there could not be found 
such a statute as this. I should like to put into the Record, 
with the permission of the Senator from North Carolina, the 
statute which was passed in Canada dealing with this ques- 
and cognate ones, and the statute in England is very much the 
same: 

" 'Whereas the ultimate constitutional authority, the people of 
Canada, have determined that the present war in which Canada 
with Great Britain and her allies is engaged is a just war and 
entered upon for just cause and from the highest motives, and on 
that should be prosecuted without faltering to a conclusion which 
shall insure the attainment of the purposes for which it was so 
entered upon; and 

" 'Whereas the mind of the entire people should be centered 
upon the proper carrying out in the most effective manner of 
that final decision, and that all questioning in the press or other- 
wise of the causes of that war, the motives of Canada, Great 
Britain, or the allies in entering upon and carrying on the same, 
and the policies by them adopted for its prosecution, must neces- 
sarily divert attention from the one great object on which it 
should be so centered, and tend to defeat or impede the effective 
carrying out of that decision; and 

" 'Whereas the day for consideration and discussion has 
passed, and the day for united action in execution of an un- 
changeable decision has come, and it is therefore necessary to 
remove every obstacle and hindrance to such united action; and 

" 'Whereas it is desirable to prohibit the publication of secret 
and confidential information as hereinafter set forth: 

" 'Therefore His Excellency the Governor General in Council, 
on the recommendation of the minister of justice, under and in 
virtue of the powers conferred upon the governor in council by 
the war-measures act, 1914, is pleased to order and enact an order 
and regulation, and the same is hereby ordered and enacted in 
the terms following, to wit: 

" 'OKDER AND EEGULATION. 

" '1. It shall be an offense — 

"'(a) To print, publish, or publicly express any adverse or 
unfavorable statement, report or opinion concerning the causes of 
the present war or the motives or purposes for which Canada or 
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland or any of the 
allied nations entered upon or prosecutes the same, which may 
tend to arouse hostile feeling, create unrest, or unsettle or infiarbe 
public opinion. 

"'(b) To print, publish or publicly express any adverse or 
unfavorable statement, report or opinion concerning the action of 
Canada, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, or 
any allied nation in prosecuting the war. 

"'(c) To print or give public expression or circulation to 
any false statement or report respecting the work or activities of 
any department, branch or ofllcer of the public service or the 
service or activities of Canada's military or naval forces which 
may tend to inflame public opinion and thereby hamper the 
Government of Canada or prejudicially affect its military or naval 
forces in the prosecution of the war. 



166 Propaganda 

"'(d) To print, publish or publicly express any statement 
report or opinion which may tend to weaken or in any way de- 
tract from the united effort of the people of Canada in the pros- 
ecution of the war. 

"'(e) To print, publish or publicly express any report of or 
to purport to describe or to refer to the proceedings at any secret 
session of the house of commons or senate held in pursuance of a 
resolution passed by the said house or senate, except such report 
thereof as may be officially communicated through the director of 
public information. 

"'(f) Without lawful authority, to publish the contents of 
any confidential document belonging to, or any confidential in- 
formation obtained from, any Government department or any 
person in the service of His Majesty. 

" '2. Any person found guilty of an offense hereunder shall, 
upon summary conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding $5,000 
or to imprisonment for not more than five years, or to both fine 
and imprisonment' 

"The Senator will see this goes much further in many respects 
than the measure which is now under consideration. 

"Mr. OVERMAN. Of course, Mr. President, much further. 
We have to trust somebody. Senators, to administer the law. 
There has been too much of a tendency here in the sejiate to op 
pose good measures on account of men. Is not that true? Sena- 
tors have stood here and fought excellent measures because of 
the men who had to administer them. We have to trust some- 
body. That is not the way Senators should consider a great 
measure which is to be passed for the benefit of the citizens of 
this entire country. 

"I am not going further into the argument, except to say that 
I have a mass of literature before me — and if I had more time I 
should like to put some of it in the Record — showing that there 
is a German propaganda going on in this country through re- 
ligious societies. I have seen letters in which it is stated they 
are trying to employ what are called colporteurs to distribute 
what they term religious tracts and quotations from the Bible 
among the employees in all our manufacturing institutions, tell- 
ing them it is wrong to make munitions and sending out litera- 
ture of every kind and character. I wish I could put this matter 
in the Record, but there is too much of it. 

"Now, Mr. President, I ask that the Secretary read the letter 
addressed to me from the Department of Justice. I wish I could 
also have the memorandum attached thereto read, but it is some- 
what long, and I will ask that it be put into the Record. 

"The Secretary read as follows: 

" 'Department of Justice, 
" 'Washington, D. C, April 26, 1918. 
" 'Senator Lee S. Overman, 

" 'United States Senate, Washington, D. G. 
"'My Dear Senator Overman: Judging from the debate in 
the Senate yesterday the purport of the letter addressed to Mr. 
Webb on April 16 does not seem to have been clear. This is the 
situation: 

" 'As already pointed out, the greatest danger to the country, 
internally, today is the use of different sorts of seditious propa- 
ganda, particularly the false pacifist propaganda. As section 3 



Legal Recognition 167 

now stands, without the proviso as to good motives and justifiable 
ends, the accused when brought to trial already has surrounding 
him all the protection afforded by the Constitution of the United 
States guaranteeing the right of free speech, etc. Further, to 
secure his conviction the Government must prove that he did 
willfully the act complained of, and it is also necessary, as the 
courts have invariably pointed out to the juries, for the jury to be 
satisfied that the acts were done or the utterances made with 
intent to obstruct enlistment or to cause insubordination, etc. 
About 250 defendants have either pleaded guilty or have been 
convicted by juries under this section. There has been no gen- 
eral complaint that the law has not been impartially adminis- 
tered or that individual liberties have been improperly interfered 
with. 

" 'It is quite unnecessary to say that the Department of Jus- 
tice, even in war time, believes that the fullest measure of consti- 
tutional protection should be given to every defendant. That is 
already accomplished without the addition of the proposed proviso. 
In this connection I respectfully call your attention to the opinion 
recently expressed by ex-President "William H. Taft, who has been 
recently quoted in the newspapers as stating: 

" ' "The statutes should never require proof that the uttering 
of disloyal sentiment is with the intent to stop the draft or to 
accomplish some other treasonable purpose. This is often diffi- 
cult to show, and when it can be shown the crime should be re- 
garded as of a higher order and should have severe punishment. 
The ground for penalizing such words without regard to the in- 
tention of the speaker is that they have one or two pernicious 
tendencies; they either stir those who hear to violence, and so 
produce a breach of the peace, or they influence others to share 
in the sentiment, and thus retard support of the war." 

" 'A few days ago one Clarence H. Waldron, convicted at Bur- 
lington, Vt., under section 3, was sentenced to serve a term of 
fifteen years for attempts to cause insubordination in the mili- 
tary forces, etc. In his charge to the jury in this case United 
States District Judge Howe used the following language: 

" ' "The Government's evidence tends to show that the defend- 
ant intended to cause insubordination, disloyalty, and refusal 
of duty in the military forces of the United States; the defend- 
ant's evidence tends to show that the only intention which he 
had was to serve God. 

" ' "You should be careful not to mix motive with intent. 
Motive is that which leads to the act; intent qualifies it. A 
crime may be committed with a good motive; it may be com- 
mitted with an evil motive, or it may be committed with a good 
and an evil motive. To illustrate: The father of a large family 
steals bread for his starving children and also to deprive the 
owner of its value. He has two motives; one is good and one 
is evil; but he is guilty, notwithstanding he has a good motive 
as well as an evil motive, for he must not steal at all. So in 
this case the defendant's intention to serve God does not excuse 
him, if you find that he also intended to cause insubordination, 
disloyalty, or refusal of duty." 

" 'This is an accurate statement of the law ; but if at the 
time of this trial the proviso as to good motives, justifiable ends, 
etc., had been written in at the end of the statute the court 
could not properly have made the statement of the law above set 
forth. 



168 Propaganda 

" 'As a lawyer, you will readily understand what a cloud of 
confusing legal technicalities can be stirred up by introducing 
collateral questions as to what are justifiable ends, the personal 
motives of the defendant, etc., especially in cases where the real 
issue should be the question whether the defendant has willfully 
crippled his country in war time. 

"'The position of this department is this: This section is 
effective only during the period of war. For nearly a year the 
original section 3 has existed without the proviso, and no wrong 
has been done under it. There is no necessity now for insert- 
ing such a proviso. Without it the defendant will have the full 
measure of protection guaranteed him by the Constitution, and 
the Government will be, as now, required to prove beyond a 
reasonable doubt both intent and willful action. To insert such 
a proviso in the statute will place an additional and unneces- 
sary burden on the prosecution which will seriously hamper the 
prosecution of the most dangerous forms of German propaganda. 
This is not a statement of opinion, but a statement of fact based 
on the actual experience of the past year. 

" 'Respectfully, John Lokd O'Brian, 

" 'Special Assistant to the Attorney General for War Work 

"'(For the Attorney General).' 

"The memorandum referred to is as follows: 

" 'Department of Justice, 
" 'Washington, D. C, April 25, 1918. 

" 'memorandum on pending amendment of espionage act. 

" 'In the pending bill to amend section 3, Title I, of the espi- 
onage act, a clause was inserted in the Senate reading: 

« . "Provided, however, That nothing in this act shall be con- 
strued as limiting the liberty or impairing the right of any 
individual to publish or speak what is true, with good motives 
and for justifiable ends." 

" 'At the suggestion of this department said clause was elimi- 
nated by the conference committee, and the pending discussion 
in the Senate relates to that clause. 

" 'This clause might be interpreted as governing all cases 
under section 3, whether arising under the section as originally 
enacted or as amended by the new act. At the very least it 
would govern cases brought for attempting to obstruct or dis- 
courage the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States, 
which will be the provision under which most cases against 
propaganda will be brought. 

" 'The said clause relating to motives and justifiable ends will, 
as a practical matter, make the espionage act either entirely use- 
less or materially decrease its usefulness as a weapon against 
pro-German or anti-war propaganda. 

" 'Most of the amendments inserted in the bill in the Senate 
do not concern that which may be properly termed "propa- 
ganda." Thej' are concerned with disloyal, contemptuous, etc., 
language about the form of government or the flag or the uni- 
form. These disloyal remarks or outbursts, against which these 
amendments are mainly directed, have seldom any effectiveness 
as propaganda. In fact, the debate in the Senate showed that 
these provisions were treated as police provisions made neces- 
sary because the disloyal remarks of the type indicated in the 



Legal Recoynitioii IBD 

bill, instead of causing disloyalty, tend to cause a passionate 
loyalty which expresses itself in outrages and disorders. Conse- 
quently in dealing with these disloyal remarks which are 
brought within the scope of the espionage act by these amend- 
ments we are not dealing with propaganda; that is, effective 
propaganda which obstructs the prosecution of the war by ob- 
structing the participation of the citizens in military service or 
other form of war service. 

" 'The dangerous propaganda seldom takes the shape of open 
and frank abuse of the United States or praise of Germany. It 
practically never takes the shape of advocacy of the cause of 
G-ermany or opposition to the cause of the United States in the 
war. It is seldom if ever possible to prove a German source of 
propaganda; that is, to prove that the financing of it or the 
Instigation of it has a German source. On its face the propa- 
ganda generally shows a motive other than opposition to the 
cause of the United States in the war or the promotion of the 
cause of Germany; and it is seldom if ever possible to prove 
that there is a concealed motive to promote the cause of Ger- 
many. Despite its defects the espionage act has proved a fairly 
effective weapon against propaganda and if amended as sug- 
gested by this department there is every reason to believe that 
it will prove an exceedingly effective weapon against propa- 
ganda. Its effectiveness, however, for this purpose has come and 
must necessarily come from the principle that the motive 
prompting the propaganda is irrelevant and that the criminal 
nature of the propaganda is dependent either upon the intent 
of it or upon the natural or necessary effects of it. To make the 
question of motive relevant, as the said clause proposes, would 
be introducing an element which would enormously increase the 
diffculty of successful prosecution and enormously decrease the 
value of the espionage act as a deterrent of propaganda. Let 
me illustrate this by referring briefly to four or five of the cur- 
rent types of dangerous and effective propaganda. 

" 'One of these types may be classed as religious or Christian 
pacifism; that is, opposition to participation in the war on the 
ground that such participation is opposed to the tenets of Chris- 
tianity and the word of God. As we know from authoritative 
Information, it was this type of propaganda which was exten- 
sively effective in ihe weakening of the Italian Army which 
caused the great Italian retreat. It would, if permitted to 
spread, tend to weaken the fighting effectiveness of any nation. 
On its face this type of propaganda has the highest possible mo- 
tive, namely, the purely religious motive, and that is often the 
real motive. Even where not the real motive, any otlier motive 
would be generally impossible to prove. The statements made 
in this propaganda consist generally of quotations from the 
Bible and interpretations thereof, so that the statements of fact 
therein contained are generally true or at least can not be shown 
to be untrue. Convictions against this type of propaganda are 
only possible where the motive is irrelevant and the intent of 
the propaganda or the natural effect of the propaganda is the 
determining factor. Another class of effective propaganda, by 
which I mean propaganda which has an effectiveness in dimin- 
ishing the fighting force of the Nation and contains the dangers 
of actually disintegrating the fighting force of the Nation, is 
that which is engaged in promoting the proletariat revolution. 
Its cardinal principle is that hostility between nations is due to 
commercial and capitalistic rivalry; that the real hostility is 

IT) 



170 Propaganda 



between the proletariat of all nations and the capitalists of all 
nations. We know that this type of propaganda has had seri- 
ous results in weakening the fighting effectiveness of Russia. It 
contains few assertions of facts, at any rate; assertions of facts 
can easily be avoided without reducing the effectiveness of the 
propaganda. On its face its motive is not treasonable; that is, 
on its face its motive is not to assist the enemy. Where a trea- 
sonable motive exists, this motive is concealed and seldom dis- 
coverable. To introduce the element of motive is to render the 
statute practically useless against this type of propaganda. 

" 'Another type analogous to the previous type is that which 
promotes the theory that international socialism is opposed in 
principle to this wai\ The promotion of international socialism 
can not, when representing genuine convictions, be attributed to 
bad motives. It represents one theory as to the best way of 
promoting human happiness, and the promotion of human hap- 
piness is a good motive. Yet this propaganda sometimes takes 
a shape which might have great effectiveness in obstructing war 
preparation and the conduct of the war. 

" 'Another type is that which is engaged in the promotion of 
greater equality of treatment of the negro, and proclaims that 
the requirement of military service on the part of the negro en- 
titles him to be free from lynchings and various social and politi- 
cal discriminations. The statements of fact used in this propa- 
ganda are frequently true. The promotion of better conditions 
for the negro often is and may be based upon good motives; yet 
this propaganda often shows the intent and more often shows 
the tendency or natural effect of obstructing the war. 

" 'Many other types of dangerous or effective propaganda 
based on good motives, or at least where proof of disloyal motive 
is practically never available, could be added. In short, the well- 
known distinction in criminal law between motive and intent 
is a distinction upon which the effectiveness of the espionage 
act as a weapon against dangerous anti-war propaganda largely 
depends. 

" 'To make the question of motive relevant in these cases, as 
would be done if the said clause were retained, would most seri- 
ously impair, if not totally destroy, the effectiveness of the espi- 
onage act against those types of propaganda which are really 
the most dangerous or effective types. 

" 'The recent trial in the district of Vermont of Clarence H. 
Waldron may furnish an illustration. The charge of the court 
in that case has been incorporated in Bulletin No. 79 of the In- 
ter|)retation of War Statutes, a copy of which is hereto attached. 
On page 6 it will be noted that the court told the jury to be 
careful and not mix motive with intent, as a crime may be com- 
mitted with a good motive. If the proposed clause were inserted 
in the bill, not only would the court have been forced to omit 
all reference to this well-known distinction between motive and 
intent, but, on the contrary, would have felt it necessary to 
inform the jury that it could take the motive of the defendant 
into account and would have to acquit him if it felt that the 
utterances made by him had been made with a good motive. 

" 'The prevalence in the country of certain kinds of disloyal 
expressions bearing some analogy to the old types of libel of the 
Government has quite naturally caused the Senate to insert a 
clause taken from the history of the law of libel. This clause 
has no appropriate place, however, in a statute or part of a 
statute dealing with modern war propaganda. If it is to be re- 



Legal Recognition 171 

tained in the act at all, it should be most carefully limited to 
those portions of the act which are analogous to the law of 
libel, as, for instance, those provisions directed against disloyal 
or aljusive language about the form of government of the United 
States or the Constitution of the United States or the military 
forces of the United States, etc. 

" 'All questions of motive should be most carefully excluded 
from those provisions of the statute under which the more sub- 
tle, dangerous, and effective types of anti-war propaganda will 
have to be fought.' 

"Mr. OVERMAN. I desire also to put in the Record another 
memorandum which has been sent to me by the Attorney Gen- 
eral, showing how the France amendment would impose such a 
burden on him that he doubts whether in many cases he could 
convict guilty men if the amendment is left in the bill. 

"The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so or- 
dered. 

"The memorandum referred to is as follows: 

" 'MEMOKANDUM on the proposed amendment 10 SECTION 3, TITLE I, 
OF, THE ESPIONAGE LAW. 

" 'The opinion of the Military Intelligence Branch is entirely 
adverse to the amendment to the espionage law to the effect that 
section 3, Title I, shall not apply to those who utter "what is 
true, with good motives and for justifiable ends." 

"'Experience teaches that such an amendment would to a 
large degree nullify the value of the law and turn every trial 
into an academic debate on insoluble riddles as to what is true. 
Human motives are too complicated to be discussed, and the 
word "justifiable" is too elastic for practical use. 

" 'There could hardly be less harm in a law saying that a 
soldier shall not be punished for disobedience, provided he bases 
his refusal to serve on grounds that are true and justifiable and 
proves that his motives are pure. Our soldiers temporarily sur- 
render their liberties of thought and speech and action in order 
that they may save them for the future. The whole Nation must 
subject itself to discipline until after the war. Otherwise in 
defending liberties in detail, we may lose liberty altogether. 

"'In every division camp there are so-called "conscientious 
objectors" who refuse to do any military duty whatsoever. They 
endeavor to spread their policy throughout the camps. They 
are stimulated by numerous publishers and orators. The Intelli- 
gence Service has in its files great quantities of books, periodi- 
cals, circulars, and letters intercepted and confiscated. The truth 
of these documents depends on the point of view of the reader. 
The motives alleged are the highest and yet their unrestricted 
dissemination could only serve to stir men up to mutiny and 
tend to disintegrate our entire Army. 

" 'One of the most dangerous examples of this sort of propa- 
ganda is the book called "The Finished Mystery," a work written 
in extremely religious language and distributed in enormous 
numbers. The only effect of it is to lead soldiers to discredit 
our cause and to inspire a feeling at home of resistance to the 
draft. 

" 'The Kingdom News, of Brooklyn, prints a petition demand- 
ing that restrictions on "The Finished Mystery" and similar 
works should be removed "so that people may be permitted, 
without interference or molestation, to buy, sell, have and read 



172 Propaganda 

this aid to Bible study." The passage of tliis amendment would 
reopen our camps to this poisonous influence. 

" 'The International Bible Students Association pretends to 
the most religious motives, yet we have found that its headquar- 
ters have long been reported as the resort of German agents. 

" 'Shakespeare wisely said that "the devil may quote Scrip- 
ture to his own purposes," and the Germans are peculiarly fond 
of abusing the religious spirit. The Kaiser appeals for obedi- 
ence to his every behest on the claim that he is the divine rep- 
resentative and spokesman. The German clergy has been a unit 
both at home and throughout this country in denouncing all re- 
sistance to the Kaiser as impious. 

" 'The collapse of the Italian Army last year was largely due 
to the religious literature printed in Italian and dropped among 
the troops by Austrian airships. The Germans have recently 
dropped among the British troops thousands of copies of a ser- 
mon by the Rev. John Haynes Holmes with a view to stirring 
up mutiny. This preacher resides in America and is linked 
• with "The Finished Mystery" group. His motives are fanatic- 
ally sincere, and he thinks his ends justifiable, yet it is evident 
that if his sermons appeal to the Germans as ammunition they 
must be dangerous in our country. The amendment proposed 
would leave such preachers to unrestricted sedition. 

" 'The gospel of sabotage is preached by many eminent pro- 
fessors in eloquent terms. Destruction of property, ruination of 
sawmills, burning of crops, sinking of ships, are all advocated 
as acts of high principle looking toward the betterment of labor. 
The result is the hampering of military success; and it is the 
result, not the motive, that must be guarded against. The dam- 
age to life, property, and efficiency already done by these doc- 
trines is great, and they threaten greater damage. 

" 'The motives of a negro preaching the elevation of his race 
could hardly be attacked as bad, yet the result may be equivalent 
to the prevention of reinforcements. G. H. Mason, a negro pas- 
tor of Jackson, Miss., preached resistance to the draft, with the 
result that only 31 out of 63 negro registrants in that county 
responded to the call. 

" 'There is no more dangerous element in this country than 
that which conscientiously battles for unlimited individual free- 
dom of act and speech at this time. The persons assume the 
highest ethical and philosophical grounds, but their influence is 
as paralyzing as that of the fanatics whose motives are so ear- 
nest that they will commit arson, murder, or suicide to register 
their beliefs. 

" 'The motives of the Bolsheviki in Russia were good, their 
ends justifiable in their eyes, and their criticisms of the admin- 
istrations were true; but they overlooked the military danger of 
such discussions, with the result that, the soldiers shot nobody 
but their own officers and their fellow citizens, and the Germans 
are still marching almost unresisted across the prostrate nation 
in spite of a treaty of peace. 

" 'The only ones who have profited by the Russian excess of 
liberty are the Germans, who do not believe in personal freedom 
except in the countries ihey wirh to conquer. 

" 'The passage of this amendment would greatly weaken Amer- 
ican efficiency and help none but the enemy. Results, not mo- 
tives, count in war; therefore the law and its executors should 
be concerned with procuring desirable and preventing dangerous 
results, leaving motives to the mercy of the judges or to the per- 
spective of historians.' 



Legal Recognition 173 

"Mr. KING. The other day during the discussion of one 
phase of this conference report, particularly that to which the 
Senator from Idaho (Mr. Borah) addressed himself, attention was 
called to the fraud statute and to the holdings of the court In 
respect to that statute. I have received a letter from the So- 
licitor of the Post Office Department, and I should like to have 
it read at this time as a part of the discussion upon this phase 
of the conference report. 

"The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Ghair hears no objection, 
and the letter referred to by the Senator from Utah will be read. 

"The Secretary read as follows: 

" 'Post Office Department. 
" 'Washington, May 4, 1918. 
" 'Hon. WiLOAM H. King. 

" 'United States Senate, Washington, D. G. 

"'My Dear Senator King: I read in the Record this morn- 
ing the speeches in the Senate of j^esterday and your remarks 
in the course of the debate. 

" 'The language of section 4 under discussion is identical with 
that of the fraud statute, and it is impossible to make any dis- 
tinction between the practical operation of the two measures. 
The fraud statute itself does not provide for a hearing, nor does 
it provide that a fraud order shall only be issued against per- 
sons who have been convicted of the fraud, as one might assume 
from the remarks of Senators. 

" 'The Postmaster General would at the present time have as 
much power to issue fraud orders against newspapers for politi- 
cal purposes or in order to accomplish any of the purposes sug- 
gested by Senators in furtherance of political interests under the 
existing fraud statute as he would have to issue orders for the 
return of such mail under section 4 of the bill. The fraud statute 
itself does not even provide for a • hearing. As a matter of 
practice and in order to administer absolute justice, full hear- 
ings are held in fraud cases; that is, where conclusive evidence 
of the fraud does not appear upon the face of the papers before 
the department. This practice would undoubtedly be extended 
to cover seditious cases, but in the latter class much of the illegal 
matter under the espionage act would appear on the very face 
of the literature being circulated, which would make a hearing 
unnecessary in some cases. In fact, the public interests might 
seriously suffer by permitting the continued use of the mails to 
one sending literature manifestly in violation of the espionage 
act pending such hearing. 

" 'Nor does the analogy between the fraud statute and the 
proposed law stop at what has been said. The fraud statute 
does not provide in terms for a review by the courts, but it is 
settled law that the equity courts have jurisdiction to restrain 
orders of the Postmaster General where they are issued contrary 
to law or where for any reason it appears the Postmaster Gen- 
eral has acted in an arbitrary or capricious manner. 

" 'This is a war measure and is intended to prevent this 
great governmental instrumentality — the mails — from being used 
against the interest of the Government in the prosecution of this 
war. The equity courts would have the same jurisdiction to 
restrain improper orders of the Postmaster General under sec- 
tion 4 of this proposed bill that they now have under the fraud 
statute. If the Postmaster General should attempt to use this 



174 Propaganda 

power for other purposes, political or otherwise, such as has 
been suggested in the course of the debate, he would not only 
violate the law himself, a remedy for which would immediately 
be available in injunction proceedings, but make himself the 
object of ridicule and contempt of the American people, with 
the result that instead of accomplishing any political advantage 
such action would be a political boomerang. 

" 'There is a further analogy between this class of legislation 
and fraud legislation. Not only has Congress provided for the 
issuance of fraud orders by the Post Office Department upon 
evidence satisfactory to the Postmaster General, but, as in the 
matter under consideration, there is a companion criminal stat- 
ute making it a penal offense to use the mails for fraudulent pur- 
poses. The delays incident and the technicalities resorted to in 
criminal proceedings have demonstrated beyond any doubt that 
the preventive measure employed by the Post Office Department 
is infinitely more effective in preventing frauds than the crimi- 
nal provision. The fact is that the action of the Post OflBce 
Department in detecting frauds has furnished the information 
upon which criminal prosecutions have followed. 

" 'The recent case of the Masses Publishing Co., where the 
magazine has been barred from the mails since last July, and 
where the courts have sustained the action of the department, 
but where the criminal proceedings are still pending after one 
mistrial, is an example of the relative efficiency of the two meth- 
ods in handling seditious matter. The Masses case is merely 
typical. In many such cases it takes years to bring offenders 
to trial in fraud cases. 

" 'Much of the seditious matter that is now being circulated 
is distributed by persons or concerns throughout the country in 
circular form and is accompanied by urgent solicitations for 
funds to continue the propaganda work, and hundreds of thou- 
sands of dollars are being sent through the mails to the dis- 
tributors of such literature. The proposed section 4 would en- 
able the Post Office Department to promptly reach and suppress 
this evil. The propagandists now engaged in this work in most 
cases are willing to serve prison sentences if they are only per- 
mitted to conduct the propaganda. They are largely of a class 
who have nothing to lose by a prison sentence, and, in fact, 
such sentence simply brings the martyrdom they seek in the 
eyes of those whom they endeavor to mislead. 

" 'I may add, in conclusion, that the practice in the depart- 
ment in all cases where fraud orders or similar orders of the 
Postmaster General are made is that a finding of the facts before 
the department is made up by the solicitor for the department 
and form a part of the record of the case and are made a part 
of the order of the Postmaster General, all of which are available 
to the interested parties for use in the courts or otherwise. 

" 'The theory underlying fraud, lottery, and other similar stat- 
utes is that the matter prevented from being carried in the mails 
is against public policy. If the practice of a fraud which only 
affects a few individuals is against public policy, how much more 
against public policy is the circulation of matter which in time 
of war strikes at the very heart of the Republic? And why 
should not all use of the mails be prohibited to one engaged in 
such undertaking? 

" 'Very truly yours, 

" 'W. H. Lamar, Solicitor.' 



Legal Recognition 175 

"Mr. FLETCHER. There is need of this legislation, Mr. 
President. It began, if I may be permitted to trace briefly its 
history, in a very innocent sort of way. It was suggested by 
the Department of Justice, because we had inadvertently over- 
looked in the original act, approved June 15, 1917, the language 
found in section 3 of the pending measure, which applies to 
'causing or attempting to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mu- 
tiny, or refusal of duty.' 

"In the next portion of that section we use the language — 
" 'or shall willfully obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service 
of the United States to the injury of the service of the United 
States — ' 

"Omitting the words 'or attempt to obstruct.' 

"Cases arose where it was difficult to prove an actual ob- 
struction to the recruiting or enlistment, but there was an effort 
made to obstruct. Attempts were made. The intention was 
there. The purpose was there. The motive was there. Every- 
thing which the law condemned was there, but it did not actu- 
ally result in preventing or obstructing the enlistment or the 
recruiting. Now, we had overlooked the use of those words 'or 
attempt' to do these things. We used them in the first part of 
section 3 of the original act, and omitted them in this part of 
the section. They are absolutely necessary words. So that 
this measure was proposed in the House in order to cure that 
defect; and you will find, referring now to section 3, that about 
all that was added in the original bill was this language in 
line 15: 

" 'Or shall willfully obstruct or willfully attempt to obstruct 
the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States.' 

"That was primarily the purpose of the bill when it was in- 
troduced. It came to the Senate, was referred to the Commit- 
tee on the Judiciary, and there certain amendments were offered; 
and the amendment reported by the committee, which is num- 
bered 5, and some others were agreed to in the Senate. There 
was an added amendment, numbered 6, offered by the Senator 
from Maryland (Mr. France) in the Senate. 

"The House disagreed to these amendments, and asked for a 
conference. We agreed to the conference, and the conferees then 
took up the measure. The House conferees were willing to 
accept the Senate amendment numbered 4, provided we struck 
out the useless words — I regard them as useless — 'or discourage' 
as they appear in lines 15 and 16, so as to leave the act: 

" 'Or shall willfully obstruct or willfully attempt to obstruct 
the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States.' 

"There is no use in using the words 'discourage or attempt 
to discourage,' as we conceived; and we agreed with the House 
conferees upon that proposition. They agreed to the other 
amendments proposed and adopted in the Senate, with the ad- 
dition in line 23 of page 4 of the words I have just mentioned: 

" 'When the United States is at war the Postmaster General 
may — ' 

"And so forth. They insisted upon disagreeing to amendment 
numbered 6, which is the matter offered by the Senator from 
Maryland, in this language: 

" 'Provided, however, That nothing in this act shall be con- 
strued as limiting the liberty or impairing the right of any in- 
dividual to publish or speak what is true, with good motives, and 
for justifiable ends.' 



176 Propaganda 

"The Senate conl'erees were obliged to yield on that amend- 
ment; and the report comes here practically with that the only 
. change made in the action of the Senate — the omission of that 
proviso from the bill — ^if the conference report is agreed to. 

"The effect of such a proviso in this measure would be to 
place upon the Government the burden of proving what? Either 
one of these offenses mentioned in amendment numbered 5, for 
instance, that the defendant did — 

" 'willfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, 
scurrilous, contemptuous, or abusive language about the form 
of government of the United States, or the Constitution of the 
United States, or the military or naval forces of the United 
States.' 

"You not only must prove that as a fact beyond a reasonable 
doubt in order to secure a conviction, but, if the defendant is 
permitted to set up as a defense that what he said was true, and 
was said with good motives and for justifiable ends, then the 
Government must meet that, and carry the burden of proving 
beyond a reasonable doubt not only that these things were 
uttered which the language of the law condemns, but that they 
were not true, that they were not uttered with good motives, 
nor were they uttered for justifiable ends. Therefore, in order 
to secure a conviction under this act, the Government would 
have to establish not only that the defendant did or said the 
things that are condemned by the act, but, in addition, beyond 
a reasonable doubt, that those things were not true that he said 
or did, that they were not said or done with good motives, and 
that they were not said or done for justifiable ends. 

The court would be obliged to instruct the jury, if requested 
by the defendant — as of course it would be — tiiat the burden was 
on the Government to establish not only the fact that the de- 
fendant uttered this contemptuous, abusive, or profane language 
regarding the Government or the flag or the military or naval 
forces of the United States, but that what he said was not true, 
and was not uttered with good motives or for justifiable ends. I 
think if you put this provision in the law you will impose upon 
the Government the additional burden not only of proving the 
facts denounced in the bill but of proving that they were not 
true, and that they were not uttered with good motives and for 
justifiable ends. It hampers the Government. It gives the de- 
fendant the opportunity of coming into court with a plea under 
which he can exploit his views, under which he can read extracts 
from various authors by way of establishing the truth of what 
he has said, and by way of undertaking to justify the ends which 
he aimed to accomplish and the motives which prompted him." 

At tlie end of the debate a vote was taken, the France amend- 
ment was rejected, and the bill was passed. It was later signed 
by the President and became law. It is generall}^ known as the 
Disloyalty Act or the Amended Espionage Act in distinction from 
the previous Espionage Act. 

This new law is admittedly a dangerous weapon, but so is a 
rifle or a cannon. Like them, this law is a military arm intended 
for defense against our enemies. The Department of Justice, which 
desired the law, may be trusted to wield it with caution. It has 



Legal Recognition 177 

been keenl}- alive to the importance of deserving its right to the 
word "Justice," and the public in general feels as safe in entrusting 
it with this weapon as in arming our soldiers. One of the leading 
jurists in the Department of Justice has made this comment on the 
amended Espionage Act : 

"In prosecutions for propaganda justice to the defendant is 
as important as any other consideration. An}^ failure of our Gov- 
ernment to produce justice to persons accused of disloyalty or 
sedition, is just as dangerous, if not more dangerous, to our fighting 
strength as a nation than propaganda itself. Jurors are impartial 
triers of fact, not prosecutors, and there is but one way in which 
they can legitimately fight propaganda, and that is to base their 
verdicts upon the facts of the case before them and the law as laid 
down by the court. 

"The strength of the Espionage Act is remarkable ; some of our 
most loyal citizens feel that it is too strong. But in the end its 
strength, its endurance, its effectiveness will come from the fact 
that it preserves our constitutional right of free speech while at 
the same time furnishing a weapon against that which is essentially 
hostile propaganda. 

"Once suggest to the courts that the proper policy and the pur- 
pose of the Espionage Act are to suspend, under the exigency of 
war, the constitutional right of free speech, and the power of the 
Espionage Act will be gone ; for no courts will enforce such . an 
idea and American juries will not for a long time enforce such 
an idea. 

"There never has been the right by speech to obstruct the car- 
rying out of the policies of the Government, and the Espionage 
Law does not suspend any constitutional right of free speech. 
Herein lies its strength. 

"In my opinion, next to President Wilson and the Selective 
Service Act, the confidence of the people in the administration 
of justice between the Government and the individual by the Fed- 
eral courts, is the strongest cementing or unifying force that we 
have. Administering justice according to law is the special con- 
tribution of the courts to the war." 



iT8 Propaganda 

EESUME. 

Voluminous as this discussion of German propaganda has been, 
it gives merely a hint of its magnitude and infinite variet3^ One 
might feel a sense of profound admiration for the thoroughness 
and minuteness of its conduct, were not one so revolted by its un- 
scrupulous contempt for truth, dignity, or mercy. It reveals a 
frightful eagerness to lie, a degenerate rapture in viciousness that 
can not be matched in history. The policy of ruthlessness stops at 
nothing from pin pricks to wholesale assassination. 

But despicable as it is in spirit and in achievement, it is a 
further evidence of an imperial determination to rule everywhere 
at all costs, and its menace demands eternal vigilance. The first 
manifestations of it, the first experimental reconnaissances and 
raids must be met at every point and checked or they will develop 
into disasters. 

In fighting a war as in fighting any other duel or meeting any 
other assault, the aggressor selects the time and the place, dictates 
the weapons and the modes of attack. The defendant must adopt 
such means of protection as will meet the attack. Any hesitancy 
or any delicacy may be fatal. Any treachery at home must be in- 
stantly crushed. It is furthermore vitally necessary as soon as 
possible, and as vigorously as possible, to take the aggressive away 
from the aggressor and create 'new weapons and better stratagems. 

In literal confirmation of the thesis of this book that propa- 
ganda is one of the munitions of war, the papers of July 7, 1918, 
contain accounts of the American methods of shooting our propa- 
ganda into the German lines from rifles. 

Mr. James Kerney, director of the Franco- American Committee 
of Public Information, thus describes some of the devices : 

■'Paris, July 7. — Thousands of specially devised rifles for 
sending propaganda over the enemy lines now are in use in the 
allied armies. From these rifles grenades are discharged, by 
means of which tracts and pamphlets may ba scattered along 
. enemcs^ trenches with considerable exactitude at a range of more 
than 200 yards. 

"For greater distances small balloons made of cloth are used. 
Each of these lifts twenty pounds of propaganda literature and 
by means of a mechanical device drops a quarter-pound of these 
documents at fifteen-minute intervals. The radius of action of 
these balloons in a 25-mile wind would be Hamburg, Berlin, 
Vienna and Trieste. The balloons travel at a height of from 
G,000 to 8,000 feet. 

"Paper balloons capable of lifting four pounds also are used 
by the American army for the purpose of distributing literature 



Resume 179 

in trenches and enemy billets for distances up to 100 miles from 
the starting point. These balloons drop a half pound of material 
at five-minute intervals. They use a fuse release, consisting of a 
slow-burning match, which is consumed at the rate of 1 inch 
every five minutes. The first release is effected five minutes 
after starting to make sure of compensating the balloon for the 
loss of gas. 

"The latest devices are planned to employ clockwork for their 
releasing mechanism, and the use of trench mortars, with a card- 
board projectile containing literature, is being considered for the 
future. 

"Airplanes are used occasionally for this purpose, but there 
are many objections to their employment." 

It has been found necessary in this war, as elsewhere, to meet 
the enemy with his own weapons and better them if possible- — 
gas with gas, fire with fire, barrage with counter barrage, and 
propaganda with counter propaganda. 

The American weapon is superior here because it is loaded 
with truth instead of lies ; it fights for freedom and not for 
autocracy. Therefore the Germans -have issued an order punish- 
ing with death the retention by their soldiers of any examples of 
American or Allied propaganda. 

The old saying, "Inter arma silent leges," applies in the present 
war peculiarly. Among, the most precious laws of our country are 
those guaranteeing freedom of thought and speech, but if the 
country falls before an enemy that has long denied its own people 
freedom of thought and speech, of what value will the constitu- 
tional privileges be when the Constitution is overthrown? 

Germany has selected as one of her deadliest weapons the great 
engine of propaganda. It can only be defeated by the defeat of 
German propagandists and all their conscious or unconscious con- 
federates, wherever they are met, at home or abroad, under whatso- 
ever disguises. 

After the war is over it will be easy to restore the comforts 
and privileges of peace. But during the war, while millions of 
our people are facing death on land and sea, and surrendering their 
treasure, their liberty and their precious lives, the activity of those 
who in any way imperil or diminish or delay our success is and 
can only be a form of military cooperation with our enemy. 

German propaganda, like German secret service, was organized 
and has been conducted with a forehandedness and magnitude un- 
equalled by any other nation. The Espionage Act furnished only 
a partial defense. Indeed the Judges seemed hardly to realize what 
a M^eapon propaganda really was, and how dangerous. Their charges 
t© the juries rarelv mentioned the word. 



180 Propaganda 

Propaganda has been and is being carried on with an ingenuity, 
energy, and ubiquity inconceivable to one who does not receive 
daily reports of the endless forms it takes and the remote centers 
in which it breaks out. No class of people is too humble to reach, 
nor any community. The whole woild is under such propagation, 
and the motives and achievements of the United States are belied 
in every respect. 

In close cooperation with the agents of Germany, and Ameri- 
can citizens ©f German sympathy, are numerous factions cooperat- 
ing with them more or less unconsciously. These range from the 
peace-at-any-price men and the advocates of dubiously sincere 
religious doctrines to the anti-social socialists, the anarchists and 
the fanatics who would rather risk their liberty altogether than 
sacrifice liberties in detail to the discipline necessary to this crisis. 

A few American authors in Europe and -many in this country 
do their utmost to discredit America. Publishers of books mas- 
querade propaganda under works of pretended realism which omit 
all the realism of nobility and sacrifice, and present only the dis- 
couraging or disgusting phases of war. ISTewspapers mix with head- 
lines of blatant Jingoism articles tending to embroil us with our 
Allies or to convince us of our hopeless inefficiency. Pamphlets and 
posters and stickers denounce the war as a capitalists' struggle for 
their investments and proclaim our soldiers slaves. Rumor mongers 
carry on "whispering propaganda," torturing the people at home 
with lies about disasters to our soldiers and frightful immoralities 
in our camps and among the Red Cross nurses. Every effort is 
made to confuse the difference between individual shortcomings 
and a general breakdown of our .efforts. 

Ruthless criticism of our officials is spread among foreign 
countries to destroy our prestige abroad, and the foreign born sol- 
diers are the victims of tireless schemes to create dissension and 
distrust. The negroes are fed with lies. Liberty Bond and War 
Savings Stamps sales and Red Cross subscriptions are hampered 
in numberless ways. 

The Department of Justice and the Postal Department are 
showing an indefatigable enthusiasm and cooperation with the other 
agencies of the Government, but a law with teeth in it was essential 
in order that German and American incendiaries by propaganda 
may be run down and punished before their fireworks get b.eyond 
control. 

T'he Disloyalty Act was a vital necessity, and the result of bitter 



Resume 181 

experience. It arms the authorities with a very powerful weapon. 
But the public must be kept alive to its own duty to recognize 
propaganda and combat it in its numberless forms from idle rumor 
to ingenious publication. Jurors, while not forgetting their sacred 
obligations to be just, must realize that they are doing war service 
in fighting propaganda. 

Its military importance could not be more vigorously ex- 
pressed than in the appeal for cooperation credited to General 
Pershing : 

"I will smash the German line in France, if you will smash the 
damnable Hun propaganda at home." 



Illustrations Showing Elxamples 
of Pictorial Propaganda 




<r^p^'p> 



A GRAPHIC PRESENTATION OF THE MILITARY MEANING OF 

PROPAGANDA AND ITS SUPPRESSION. 

(From a cartoon by Orr, in the Chicago Tribune, June 14, 1918.) 



U2 



Ecclesiasticism's Seven Plagues 247 

presented to them as truth — they must 'try -the spirits,' 
whether they be holy or evil, of God or of the Evil One— 
the Spirit of Truth or the spirit of error. These both are 
Introduced by prophets, or teachers." — 'E320, 295. 

[Like] AS IT WERE frogs. — Frogs are garrulous, have a 
very wise look, large mouths, are much puffed up and 
utter only croaklngs. In the "distress of nations with per- 
plexity" which has come upon Christendom as a result of 
her sins, the croakings of the wise now fill the air every- 
were. Actually all knees are "weak as water." — Elzek. 
7:17; 21:7. See especially D 1-xvi. 

Come out of the mouth of the dragon, — The three funda- 
mental truths oi! history are man's Fall, Redemption and 
Restosration. Stated In other language these three truths 
are the mortal nature of man, the Christ of God and His 
Millennial Kingdom. Standing opposite to these Satan has 
placed three great untruths, human immortality, the Anti- 
christ and a certain delusion which is best described by 
the word Patriotism, but which is in reality murder, the 
spirit of the very Devil. It is this last and crowning fea- 
ture of Satan's work that is mentioned first. The other 
two errors are the direct cause of this one. The wars 
of the Old Testament were all intended to illustrate the 
battlings of the New Creature against the weaknesses of 
the flesh, and are not In any sense of the word justification 
for the human butchery which has turned the earth into 
a slaughter-house. Nowhere in the New Testament is 
Patriotism (a narrow-minded hatred of other peoples) en- 
couraged. Everywhere and always murder in its every 
form is forbidden ; and yet, under the guise of Patriotism 
the civil governments of earth demand of peace-loving men 
the sacrifice of themselves and their loved ones and the 
butchery of their fellows, and hail it as a duty demanded 
by the laws of heaven. 

"Everybody of importance In the early years of the 
twentieth century was an ardent champion of peace. A 
crowd of royal peacemakers in a world surcharged with 
thoughts and threats of war, a band of lovers strolling down 
an avenue which they themselves had lined with lyddite 
phells and twelve-inch guns. Prince Bulow, Sir Henry 
Campbell-Bannermann, Mr. H. H. Asquith. Mr. John Hay, 
and Mr. Elihu Root, pacific in temper, eloquent in their 
advocacy of the cause of international good will, were a 
galaxy of peace-loving statesmen under a sky black with, 
the thunder-clouds of war. English and German papers 
■were discussing invasions, and the need of increased arma- 
ments, at the very time that twenty thousand Germans la 
Berlin were applauding to the echo the friendly greetings 

A PAGE FROM "THE FINiSKED MYSTERY." 
(Note the allusions to Patriotism.) 



183 



TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE 



IX 



has Europe discovered that it was a Song of Death. 

But has she discovered it? We fear the truth is 
only just beginning to dawn. France at any rate does 
not yet perceive that she is being bled to death 
for the sake of England, who employs her to-day 
against Germany, even as she employed Germany 
against Louis XIV and Napoleon in former centu- 
ries. France, Belgium, Russia, Italy, are to-day 
England's instruments. By means of them does she 
hope to destroy Germany and Austria-Hungary; 
but she also hopes that by destroying these, they 
will have eo ipso destroyed themselves. The whole 
of Europe will thus be drained to the last drop of 
blood, exhausted, ruined ; and on those ruins will 
England's trade flourish anew. The harvest reaped 
as the result of the Napoleonic wars will be reaped 
again. 

Such was England's calculation. It was a mis- 
taken one. For the first time in her history since the 
Elizabethan period, England has miscalculated her 
chances. Grievously miscalculated them! Ger- 
many has to-day assumed the glorious task of lib- 
erating the world from the clutches of the British 
parasite. She it is who continues the great mission 
of Napoleon, who takes up the sword dropped by 
him, and which France, unfortunately, is to-day un- 
willing to wield. In this great war everyone must 
take his part — for it is a struggle between light and 
darkness, between truth and lies, between manly vigor 
and parasitical cowardice, between civilisation and 

"THE VAMPIRE OF THE CONTINENT." 
(A page from the preface to the American edition.) 



184 



VARGAS VILA 



Ante los Barbaros 

(LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS Y LA GUERRA) 




"AGAINST THE BARBARIANS, THE YANKEE— THERE'S THE 

ENEMY!" 
(The cover of an anti-American book published in Barcelona.) 



185 





Un accidents inesperado. 
(an (/NPOr?£SF£N ACCIDENT) 



— iY fanfas cosas, can au6 (s hscon? 
—Con aif«. 

(and so man V THINGS, - Wl TH WHA T 
ARE rvEV ■F>,-^CfOVCEV? WITH AIR,) 



PRO-GERMAN SPANISH POST CARDS SHOWING THE DEFECTION 
OF RUSSIA AND AMERICA'S EMPTY BOASTS 




Country 
SPANISH GERMANOPHILE PROPAGANDA 

From Cainfyana dc Gra<:ui (Barcelona) 



King 



THE KAISER AS GOD, KING AND COUNTRY 
(A Spanish Pro-Ally View of Spanish Pro-German Propaganda) 



186 



Los defensores de los debiles. 




Su primera gran Victoria 

"THE DEFENDERS OF THE WEAK. THEIR FIRST GREAT 

VICTORY." 

(A page from a pro-German comic paper published in Spanish. The 

prostrate figure represents Greece.) 

187 



-^ 



IN THE LAND OF THE "FREE' 

AN AMERICAN MINISTER TO AMERICANS 

Address by John Haynes Holmes, Pastor of the Unitarian Church, Park Ave., and 34th St., New York City. 



On the morning of Sunday, March 7, 
1915, Luleclared in Ihis church my ab- 
solute and unalterable opposition to war. 
"War," I said, "is never justifiable at any 
time or under any circumstances. No 
man is wise enough, no nation is im- 
portant enough, no human interest is 
precious enough, to justify the whole- 
sale deslruclion and murder which con- 
stitute the essence of war . War is 
hate, and hate has no place within the 
human heart War is death anddeathhasno 
place within the realm of life. War is hell, 
and hell has no more place in the human 
order than in the divine." I then asked 
what "this means in practical terms of 
to-day?" And I answered, "It means 
not only that war is unjustifiable in 
general, but that Ihis English war is un- 
justifiable for Englishmen, and this Oer- 
man war is unjustifiable for Germans. 
It means that this war which may in the 
folly of men, come to America to-mor- 
row, is unjustifiable for Americans." 

These words spoken in this place more 
than two years ago, i must reaffirm this 
day. Nothing has happened in this period 
of time to change my opinion of war. 
On the contrary, much has happened to 
strengthen and confirm it. I do not deny 
that war, like polygamy, slavery and can- 
nibalism, was inseparable from early and 
low stages of social life. I do not deny 
that war, like pestilence, famine and con- 
flagration, has often helped forward the 
civilization of mankind, for thus does 
God make the wmth, as well as the 
•gony of men, to praise him. I do not 
even deny thai there have been times in 
ihe past when war, like the storms of 
the sea, has seemed (o be unavoidable. 
What t do deny is that these facts of 
history touch m any remotest way the 
judgment of ethics and religion that war 
is wrong, or should swerve by so much 
•s a hair's breadth the decision of any 
one of us to have nothing to do with 
t. War is in open and utter violation 
of. Oiristianiiy. II war is tight, then 



Christianity is wrong, false, a lie. If 
Christianity is right, then war is wronc, 
false, a lie. 



To criticise adversely a war m which 
once's native land is about to engage^ 
or has already entered, is unusual, but 
fortunately not unknown. On February 
4, 1847, amid the lever of public enthus- 
iasm following the outbreak of the 
Mexican War, Theodore Parker, addres- 
sing a great anti-war meeting in Faneuil 
Hall, Boston, said: 

"Ihli war hut a mtia and InliinoMt tMgis- 
nlDg, ud !• iMtog waged tor « mean and 
Itlamou pnrpoH ... .1 know Inrt odc war ao 
bad bi miMleiii thnea, and that waa die war 
for the partllion of Poland." 

Four months later, in a sermon preach- 
ed in the Boston Music Hall, at a 
time when hundreds of American soldiers 
had been killed in battle, and other 
hundreds were still pouring out their 
life-blood on Mexican soil, Theodore 
Parker again said: 

**We are wfging a moat inlqaltoaB war. . . . 
We mnil icfoae Ic take an^ part In It and 
aBOonrage othen to do the aame. ...and aid 
Iheffl, U need lie, who anller becante they re- 
laae.> 

The Mexican war of 1847 may have 
l>een very different from the German War 
of IQ17, but the spirit of free utterance 
here manifested by our greatest Unitarian 
preacher, is the same in every age. It 
was in accordance with this spirit that 
i stated in this place on Sunday, February 
4, last, the day following the dismissal 
of Ambassador Bernstorfl, that "BOthIng 
can conceiTably be iaagincd'wblcb can 
Jistily war between Aaicrica and Ocr 
many;" and it is in accordance-with this 
same spirit, that I now reaffirm this judg- 
ment I' have no desire to substantiate 
it, since the argument raises dubious 
questions and would inevitably involve 
regrettable antagonisms. On the other 
hand, however, you are entitled to know 
my processes of thought and the reasons 
for my conclusion. May I say, there- 
fore, that the impending war at this mo- 



ment seems to me to be wrong, since 
it has its origin in motives only less 
ignoble than those which drove us into 
conflict with Mexico just seventy years 
ago' 

If you tell me that this war is fought 
for the integrity of International law, I 
must ask you why it is directed only 
against Germany and not also against 
England, which Is an equal although far 
less terrible violator of covenants be- 
tween nations ? 

If you say that it-is fought on behalf 
of the rights of rienlrals, I must ask you 
where, when and bj which belligerent the 
rigtih of nenfrals have been conserved in 
this war, and what guarantee you can 
offer that, after aH our expenditure of 
blood and money for their defence, these 
rights will not be similarly violated all 
over again In the next war by any 
nation which, is battling for its life? 

If you say that it is fought for the 
security of American property and lives, 
I mast aak yon how and to what extent 
it will be safer for our citizens to cross 
the teas after the declaration of War than 
it was before? 

If you say Jhat it i,s fought In vindica- 
tion of our natiorui honor, I must ask 
you why no bam bis come to the honor 
of other nations anch as Holland and Scan- 
dinavia, for example, which have suffer- 
ed even more than we, but, for pruden- 
tial reasons, refuse to take up arms ? 

If you say that tlit) is a war of defense 
against wanton and intolerable aggres- 
sion, I must reply that every blow which 
we have endured his t>een primarily a 
blow directed not afainst ourselves but 
against England, anj that it has yet to 
be proved that Oeraany has any Inten- 
tloa or desire of attacking ns. 

II you say that this war is a life-and- 
death struggle lor the preservation of 
civilization against barbarism, I must ask 
you why we remained neutral when 
Belgium was raped, and were at last 
aroused to action not by Ihe cries of 



the stricken abroad, but by our own 
losses in men and money? 

If you say that this war is a last 
resort in a situation which every other 
method, patiently tried, has failed to meet, 
I must answer that this Is not true— that 
other ways and means of action, tried 
by experience and justified by success, 
have been laid before ihe administration 
and wilfully rejected. 

In its ultimate causes, this war Is the 
natural product and expression of our 
unchristian civilization. Its armed men 
are ^wn from Ihe dragon's teeth of 
secret' diplomacy. Imperialistic ambitions, 
dynastic pride, greedy commercialism, 
economic exploilalion at home and 
abroad. In the sowing of these teeth, 
America ha^ ...d her part; and it is 
therefore only proper, perhaps, that she 
should have her part also in the reaping 
of the dreadful ht^^''- '" ''^ "^^'^ ™' 
mediate causes, this war is the direct 
result of unwarrantable, cruel, but none 
the ' -ss inevitable Interferences with our 
com ercial relations • with one group 
of Ce belligerents. Our participation In 
the war, therefore, like the war Itself, is 
political and economic, not ethical, in Its 
character. Any honor, dignity, or beauty 
which there may be in our impending 
action, is to be found in the impulses, 
pure and undefiled, which are actuating 
many patriotic hearts to-day, and not at 
all in the real facts of the situation. 

The war itself is wrong. Its prosecution 
will be a crime. There is not a question 
raised, an issue Involved, a cause at 
stake, which is worth the life of one 
blue-jacket on the sea or one khaki-coat 
in the trenches. I question the sincerity 
of no man who supports this war— I 
salute the devotion of every man who 
proposes lo sustain it with his money 
or b& blood But I say to you that 
when,_y^ars hence, the whole of this 
story has been told It will l>e found 
that we have been tragically deceived, 
and all our sacrificea been made in vain. 



Statements of this kind, made on the 
eve of war, .seem to many persons to 
be freasonable. The charge of "traitor" 
has been flung against me, and will be 
flung again. To such a charge, I might 
be content to answer in the words of 
Patrick Henry, who, when similarly ac- 
cused, cried out I "If this be treason, 
make the most of it." 

Wiser and kindlier was the reply of 
Theodore Parker who, when denounced 
as a traitor because of his steadfast op- 
position to the Mexican War, said: 

"I think llghlJy of what Is called Ueasoa 
againit a govemraenl. That may be yonr daly 

to-day, or aalne Bat trcaion against Ihe 

people, acalnat maokiad, against Ood, Is a 
great sin not lightly to l>c spoken ol." 

This is my service for the days of 
war— the ministry of reconcilalion, the 
defence of democracy, the preparation 
of the gospel of peace, the quest of 
brotherhood. It is the deliberate espousal 
of that higher spiritual loyally whfch is 
not so much the destruction as It is the 
fulfilment of those lower and more 
carnal loyalties which stir Ihe envy and 
Ihe hale of men. 

Such Is my hope I I pray that It is 
well-founded If not, I shall want to 
know. Vou have but to speak, and I 
will surrender my post to one who can 
safer guard it, and obediently though 
sadly go my way The world is wide— 
so long as I have my soul to comrade, 
I shall not be lonely— and if I go down 
at last in failure and defeat, i shall find 
comfort in the thought that other and 
far better men than I have walked that 
road and met that end, but none of 
them all for a belter or a grander cause 
For America, for humanity, for God, I 
shall have lived and died. Than Ihis 
no man can ask a happier fate. 
"Tbty ont-talked tbee, blised Itaee, lore Ihee ? 
Belttr men Itred Ibna before Ihcc , 
Fired Ifaeir ringing shot and ptssed. 
Hotly cbaijed— and sank at Uti. 
"Charge once more, then, and be dambl 
tct Ihe rldart, wbta Ibcy esnse. 
When Ihe lorla ol lolly liU, 
Find Ihy body br Uic wall I" 



Exact reproduction of thig 



AN AMERICAN SERMON USED AS GERMAN PROPAGANDA, 
enormous numbers by balloon into the lines of the British Fifth Army just before the spring offe 



(Obverse) 



IN THE LAND OF THE "FREE" 




How Morganlsm has driven Wilson and-America to the Betrayal of Humanity. 

Thi« cartoon wi>> on the rrvcrir of ihr Americcn termon sent into the lino of the British Fifth Army. 



^^021 



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h/^A^yi^I^/^^^ 



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Final Check for Purchase of The Mall, Paid to Rumely Through Lyon. 



new YorV. May S7th. 1916. 

E<luit.»Mg Trust Company 

New Tork City, 

fleas. i3su« yoar Cashi.r'e cheoJt for 

,^ 360.000.. 
( thr.ehundr.dflftythousanl iolUrs) 

«oocunt of V. B.rnstorff an, ^,.if. 

Tours Tery truly 

Dr. Albert's Letter Asking tor Cashier's Check for Part of The Mall 
Purchase Money. 



/£i^^j 



FACSIMILES OF CHEQUES USED IN TH£ PURCHASE OF THE NEW YORK EVENING MAIL. 




OUR FOREION OFFICE 



1 American Shipj 

SEIZED 




'London Punch," 

London, England. 
Sir: — Perhaps it may please you to know just what our edi- 
torial writers think of His Majesty's government We quote from 
an editorial from the New York "Sun," of January 16, 1917: 

"Mr. Lloyd George is confident of victory, but if he should 
be mistaken about the issue of the war the worst that could befall 
the Entente Allies is a draw; and that would leave the British 
Empire in the strongest position in Europe and in the whole world. 
She would retain her great navy With its invincible line of battle- 
ships, strengthened by new construction; and she would have a 
veteran army of at least 3,000,000 effectives; also a merchant 
marine of very superior tonnage, in spite of losses by submarine 
warfare, for her shipyards have not been idle. Mr. Lloyd George 
is right: no nation would dare to touch England after the war, or 
even to threaten her; certainly not to impose upon her good nature 
or to assume that from love of peace and regard for arbitration as 



a principle she would graciously forfeit her rights. Can it be 
doubted that if the war ends without a military triumph by Ger- 
many, which now seems out of the question, Great Britain, with 
control of the sea, will be the first of military powers? 

But that is not all. Industrially Great Britain will be more 
formidable than ever, and needing the money that the lion's share 
of the world's trade would bring her, no opportunity to control 
and capture markets will be missed. After the war of 1870-71 
France in a comparatively few years liquidated the huge indemnity 
exacted from her by Germany. It will be Great Britain's aim to 
scale down her enormous war debt, and a like success will probably 
attend her enterprise." 

As an humble citizen whose trade rights have been violated, 
and whose business has been ruined, I thought it might be interest- 
ing for you to know how indignantly our newspapers feel about 
your aggressions. 




*° American Pficotm 

IGNORED 



V^D <1 


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5 AMERICAN GOOD5 CDNTISCATED ^ AMERICANS VV£ymmX>'fvn Buying Ships |7' EMBARGO «?gai'«J^ AMERICAN GOODS 



oAmewcan Coast 

BLOCKAteD 



A DOUBLE PAGE FROM "BULL" (FEBRUARY, 1917) EDITED BY JEREMIAH O'LEARY. 
This copy was taken from a German prisoner in the war barracks at Fort Douglas, Utah. 

D 




StPaul EnleriJiise 




ST. PAUL, RAMSEY COUNTY. MLNNESOTA 

TUESDAY, FEBRUJUY 19, 1918 






51,50 a Yeai 
Sia^e Copies 5 Ceno 



j Engagement 0/ Bride 

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Cnmc ■■ UJhal Thl, Implitt lo <*» lUorld. j 



Y^l 




T/io "Uulinif" Bodies and the 'Ruled' as Maple Trees 
Mri' Ciuinfi Up The-r V:talily.'Sap.--and Your 
•Uncle" Puis ll In ni' Mfllinx P»t- 







A PACE FROM A RUSSELUTE PAPER 
I. Not* |K« •lliMiona lo lit* R*<1 Crou and iK* CoiucUnlio 

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I Vol. XXIV. Nr. 85 j 
Qernian Offjcn 

Berlin W.M 

Aoc»burgir StriiH H 

Hdqbsrg 



AN INDEPENDENT COSMOPOLITAN NBWSPAPBR 



MONDAY, JANUARY 14, 1918 



further 



LATE ST NE WS 

Very important meettngi have 
taken place between the Generals 
von Hlndcnburg and Ludendorff 
who have been in Berlin since 
SaturdaY-and the leading; States- 
mtn. 

The presence of the Croi 
pr.'nce In the Capital 
without Importance. 

On Sunday there » 
iniporlant meetings between the 
military leaders and the Imperial 
Cliancvllor. Count HcrtUng. 

Following upon the mentioned 
Conferences will be a Crown 
Council to be held today prei/ded 
over by the Kaiser. It whi 
be a Crown Council In Ote fullest 
sense of the word as all the 
Mlnistcn will not be present. 
However there can be no doubt 
Itut that this Council will have a 
i-ivnt influence on the further 
Lontfuct of the war and fn ttie 
unfolding of Oerman polity. 

Outside of the so Importsnt 
Council, and as a result of the 
same, It Is stated that there may 
be expected two spmeches of the 
Imperial Chancellor during thia 
wtek. The one will be given be- 
fore the Conimlssloa oftlie Reichs- 
tag upon foreign politics, the 
other In the Herrenhaus upon 
Intbrnal politics of Prussia. It Is 
anticipated, although It Is not 
quite sure, that the speech before 
the Commission will take place 
on Wednenduy next whea the 
general pollilcai debate will be 
resumed which had been pott- 
poned on account of the doings, 
of the Peace Conference. 

The Chancellors speech will 
take place In the Herrenhaus an 
Tuesday, when be will present 
himself to the Upper House as 
MInfator President 



THE HUNGER STRIKERS 



Lmrge U-Boat Booty 



"Ctiliondilt." ifiH 



t IliUm ( 




THE SELF-ASSUMED ARBITER OF THE DESTINIES OF EUROPE 

^ Aubrty Sianhope 



Coat Shortage In America 






I tnolbti 10,000 [ 
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r l*rtt iblp* Witt 






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DiPLMATic SErnEct mm 



denUlly 



TYRANNY IN UNITED STATES 



RUSSIAN WORKS CLOSED 



Trotzkl Speaks Out Clearly 



P/chon Against Maximallsla 



A PACF FROM A GERMAN PAPER PRINTED IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 
I liis isiue wm icnl into the BritUh linei by a paper balloun. 

F 



3« Ann/5e. — f:^ 4Sa 



5 PFENNIG 



Tirage: 160,000 Enempla 



Charleville, le 2 Octobre 1917 



Gazette des Ardennes 



]2: ".'r;.r;-,,r-nr.':K::"n.::.!:':" 1 journal d 


ES PAYS OCCUPfS PARAiSSANT OUATRE FOIS P/ 


R SEMAiNE 1 ::.;rr:i"rj-.t: 


"p°r;:'.r.r;;L':; j 








COHSIDERATIONS M M Wm 


BULLETINS OFFiCIELS 
ALLENANOS 


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ANGLAIS 


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u qu d nil U) I, fl <] 

iviilr iloa inoiivOnii'iiti : tllo ptiiil en 
eorl.ilriB <uir iimiKjunr da K*iiflroiilfl, 
iMnIn Clio ant ililcli-im-nl Junto. 
" U iiotKrnliW (jul jiflrtiiul loul eit 


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•iijilioi'l a lir6 cnim le iiDiitmird qn'll 
lonnil caclid loiit n roLo . il rsC 
mfnik i|u'il on imt oinil. 

Mdl» ni< cr.>yo( 1)0) quo M. Wilson 
•it uhonKf ilo nature. Toul eii 
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io hniiU'licurc.i du Uanubv luunl .Ic 
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A PAGE FROM THE GERMAN PAPER PUBLISHED IN THE FRENCH LANGUAGE FOR DISTRIBUTION AMONG THE FRENCH 

(Not» Ih. conl.mpluou. article "By . Frenchm.n" on Pre.id.nl Wil.on.) 




Ucl ilcux document! rcptoduits ici ont Hi 
irouv*! dans un »vion ingljis rJccmmcnt abatlu. 
II s'«i(il d'unc fciiille dc routt tt d'unt carle 
>ur laqucUc sont marqu*^ Us itajctt 
pat 1« avialiun aiigUii atiaquant la contrtc 
Induslrlellc allemandc Aix-laChaptllc et Cologne. 

Lc> d>uK Iraicts partem de Dunketque «t 
paJltnl jui letntoir« hollandaii. vii ' 
volontaittment et Jvsttmatiquemem la neuttalilt 
de. Payi-B... Le trajer sud maique le chemiti 
J allet^ tJunktrque-Gand-Mahtricht-Aixla-Cha 
pe le-Colo,ne. Celtt lijne coup, Ic tertitoit. 
holUndut >ur un pareour. d< 24 kUomttrtt 
!■« tr^j.* n„J (jhtmin de retout i Cologii^ 






11 est vrai qu'un troisiimc traJL-t est encore 
marque, Icquel respectc la ncutcaliti hollandaisc 
en conduiiant de Macstricht par LUge i Aix-la 
Chapelle. Mais tandis qui: Us deux 
trajets sont pourvus dc chit^re.<i niarquan( les 
temps du parcours, ces indiCA- 
tiom msnqutnt complittment poitr c 
tTMJtt : ce qui dimonlre i 1 evidence que cc uoi- 
jitme parcours n'a jamais ete sen»;u5«ment prii 
deration. 

vU prouvcni >So.m il.-i.u- 
mcnt que Us aviateuts aaglais nc violent pit la 
neutrality hollandaite par inadvert^nc. m«i> hit.-.. 
av« mcthode et inlention 



A Gr«.tl> B J J „ ^ ^"^ ClAZETTE DES ARDENNES. ILLUSTRATED EDITION. 

•^.duced P,g, From th. P«p«- PuWiJ»«l in French b, the German.. It Ha. , Very Large 



Mriii 



Mhttei 



-^■' 



60LETIN DE LA GUERRA 



POR l_A VERDAO 



BOYCOTEADO POR LA CANCILLERIA DE YANQUILANDIA 

,1 "'""'iS;;'"..' D r. I Jueves 2S d© Marzo de> 1918 j fdl".'ip,: 



nNA ?EZ MAS FRANCIA HA SI 




VICTIMA DEL EGOISMO INGLEI 



Pafis esta 



en inminefite pelip de caef a manos de las tfopas imperiales (jue estan en las 
inmediaciones del fecinto fortificado fecienlemente constfuido 



El ej^rcito ingles huye tiacia el Norte temiendo ser copado por 

los alemaoes que estan trataodo de poner cerco a la Ciudad 

de Amiens, centro de retiradadelte rcer ej^rcito britanlco 

Los Iranceses ante el abandono de los trit^nicos, no pneden ni intentar 
Gontener el avance imperial sobre la Ciudad Luz 



HJondo vlctima del cpoUmo de los britinicos. 

Scgtin las ilotici.is que publica la propia prehsa atia'- 
d6fila, cl oj6rcito ingl6s ha rcalizado un descsperado esfucrzo 
para contcner el avance alemAn y hasta se dipc que, eflmera- 
monto, ha logrado contcncrlo en la regi6n situada al oeste y 
fiurooBte de la ciudad dc Albert. 

Cualquicra que tcnga un mapa y sentido romiin, com- 
prondorA perfcctamentc cl prop6sito de los inglcscs. 

La parte mfls amenazada del frcnte occidental, no es 
prcciaamcnto cl ocste do Albert, sino el norte dc Paris, en 
donde los alcmancs ban introducido una cuf^a que llcga a las 
pucrtas de la capital francesa, y que es el punto por 



de la capital francesa. 

Mientraslos inglesesbc 
han de ceder terrene hacia 6 

Triste fin de una alianz 
lismo (ranees fragu6 y que li 

nales come jamSs pudo 
seducido por )a idea de la <i 



9 han I 



08 decir on Montdidier, qi 
dido por francoaraericano: 
tunica. 



dos el (rente de los aliados. 
itural scrla que los ingleses utiliza- 
idos mucho mis al sur dc Albert, 
! ya esta siendo atacado y dcfen- 
y por rcstos del ala derecha bri- 



Para salvar Paris 

Un rudo ataque per eatc sector, amenazarla la cufla ale- 
mana quo va a Paris. 

VA (lanco dcrccho de la cufli alemana serla obligado a 
batirsc mAs al cstc sobro Royu y til vez liasta Noyon, y la bre- 
' * r corrada, salvAndoso asi cl eiercito (rancia de 
lun cuando cllo iinplicase la 
> y pfrdida de considcracibn 



La prensa y la guerra 



cba podrln 

un vordndoro y coloaal (rac 
rotuia on dos del (rente britAi 
para los inuleses. 

Poro do todos modos, las pirdidas ingle; 
Insalvacibn.enparto, del actual (rente debatalladesde Reims 
a la (rontera Suiza. 

Huida hucia el norte 

Loa Ingleses no quiorcn saber nada de esto. 

Loa inglcBcs ban sido dcrrotados. y se preocupan ta 
lo do salvar nl cjdrcito cjue es suyo, de ^Uos, que es britA 
toniindolos muy sin cuidado cl cjirciio (rancis, Paris y toda 
btoncin.- 

Y pot tal tnx6n, ante la amenaza dc que los alemai 
llogascn a Amions por cl este, avaneando como avanzaban 
cercade Corbie, y con cllo cortasen la retirada a una parte 
do las fucnas inglosas del Icrcer ejircito que ailn estin ba 
H«ndo80 on retirada hacia el norto dc Amiens, por esto cm- 
prondicron los desospcrados ktaqucs al oeste do Albert. 
_ El gran stacrificio britiBico, tu4 para salvar a los britA 

A los (ranceses... que loa pat^a un rayo. 
^ Una vei mAs Francia ha sido vlctima del egolsmo fle los 



de la ciudad de Paris, y librao- 
patrullns que rodean los fuertes 



i del capita- 
ticia tan gra* 
ra el pueblo, 



Jam&8 contiunda algana ha da- 
) taato trabtijo a loa prenaas mua- 
riialoe oomoelaotDaloonUiotoqao 
uola a ombos mundos. Biea e« 
verdad, que DUnoaeapeoUoalo (ad 
lomonao hablase ofrooido a log ojoa 
dDlahumanidad. 

la actual ona noatiendanDP. 
imijletamente original ea loa 
footorea y oo loa ptooedimieDtot. 
Uodando el iuoditiamo guerrero 
baala el punto do eroplear los t6i- 
oulos Upogrdfioaa oomo udo de loa 
!&• cGoaocB modloa do oombato. 

Et euarto poder, Ui pahnca mo 
dema, la vos dc ncero, como que- 
rdia llamar ol porlodismo modoroo. 
ha mottiado en el torrenu h6\ico 
uua Queva (acuta de eu poder in. 
mtiDBO, deoidiondo la actitud de 
muuhaii nivoiones con rcapoclo a la 
politick interDRoioaal. 

Desdo t)ue aurgid ol ooodicto. 
europoo, auu las pubUcaoiooea mAa 
modustaa do todo el mundo adop- 
taron uo oriterio de paroialidad 
tiaola oualquierado amboa baodi 
boligoiantea. o hioioroo t>&odera do 
luoba de eata <nii»» o de aqoel 
«(obi»». Uno« por eiponCAnea 
gramlta aimpaUa, Otro«, loa aiA 



gazapoe vertidos ( 

en ol libro, por 

desapreosivoa qnedeshonrao lapla. 

., aerAn njotivo ©n el porvenir 

qno al jutgaree con verdadoro 

soDtido de jaaticia la oaosa de la 

presento heoatombe. el honrado 

laberinto de coDfuaionea, de taco* 
irenciasyda abeurdoa. 
Clarooa, qno al hablar dffla preo- 
> mala, de esto porlodismoaoet y 
<ndido quu avergUenza a lesoon- 
OQoias bonradae, noa rclorimoa 
ezolDsivameDto a laspoblloacioDee 
deben al djuero aliado. a 
u oditorialea dopendlenteo 
do Fyanco-anglo-Yanquilundia, a 
loB plumlfi>roe. ein oorazdn y alo 
dignldad profuaioDal, ouyaa plu- 
afte eatin a meroed del cirano que 
psga. lEapiriloaraatreroa. guifla- 
poe de eaplritnl 

oapltales errorea cometidoa por la 
Eatente. una do taa priDcipali 
oaoaaadeUTtDioaBloe da au dwe- 
praaligio y aa (raouu ante la opi- 



Paris en peligro 



Clai 









l^talDi 
pckflu da la pnxiaa, 
oaoa a Uuto* dOlarea por Ud««, 



□iOn UQiveraal. ba 



mtoQeDdole ifinntoa y avaooM de* 
il« loa pwriddiooa y librua da ac 
ic«ot:te, para al (In, qaadar al dec 
Dudo dtj cuerixi enieru. moatmndo 



ro cslA que abandonados loa (ranceses por \v- l.ni . 
nicos, no puedon msistir «I ompuje tout6n. no i6lo ft'fi-lui 
do hombrts. sino tamhi4n por quodar en descubierto t .1 , rl 
ala uquietda del ej«rcito francos, desde Soissons al ma. ■ .^ ,i 
X dwiancia tan grande que no hay (uetias basUnies pa- 

probabilidades do ruisteucia oBcag. 

I, haa Avtnsado muy tl sur, lle-i 



SEIMAMA SArslTA 

Hakaaa, caa s*Uy* «• U «*taaaiAai 4«l 41*. av *p*n 
• •Mita yakhcaciaa, aal*^ sa al caM4a o*. •♦Mciai 4« ••* 
r*rtaatla.a«*rtUMaUf«k»cacUa««aaa«4l«l*a«atr»«r«M 



6No habra ya 
comunicacion 
con Espana? 

Cuanto mas ies pegan a los alia- 
dos, mas necios se ponen 

Dirlase que los aliados se proponen disponer el Animo del 
mundo de tal modo, que a la hora de las exigencias del ven- 
cedor, el mundo entero celebre las condiciones de paz que los 
iiTjpjeriales impongan, per muy duras que scan. 

Cuanto mAs Ies pegan a los aliados, mAs necios se ponen. 

Ahora se han empenado en que no exista comunicaci6n 
entre Mexico y Espafia y estAn haciendo lo posible para que 
las naves hispanas no puedan llegar a nuestros puertos. ne- 
g^ndoles el carb6n necesario para la travesia. 

ensajes que el ultimo vapor espartol que 
10 podrA seguir el viaje por carecer de 






_ . a ta Haban 
combustible. 

Hsta conducta ridfcuta de los 

los pueblos paclficos ante la impotencia de 
dcrosos enemigos que ellos 



Vayan los pueblos del mont6n incivilizado ; 

Ya veremos cuAl serA la cosecha. 

No han de olvidar Wilson y comparsa que en 
d6, allA por el anode i8o8, un refrAn quedecia: <a 
CO le Itega su San Martin*. 



POR SI ACASO 

La labor de los sumergibles se ha 

intensificado a la par con la 

de los ejercltos de tierra 



.liflcarse de cja flemana^de' 
tierra los alemanes (u6 m&s 



La semana pasada puede c 
sastrosa> para los ingleses. 

La soba que Ies dieron por 
que tormidable. 

Porque hay que tener en ci 
gan las noricias con cuentagotas. ya que segiin un parte o 
cial alemAn. las ciudades de Albert. Lihons, Roye y Noy< 
foeron lomadas AL TERCEK DIA DE OFENSIVA. esd 
cir, el dia 23, sAbado, y no llegaron hasta 



17. >■ 






nbotic 



Pero por ai eso fuese poco, tambien la zurra submarina 
fue de las que hacen epoca. 

Eo efecto, segi^n confesi<^n del Almirantazgo britinico, 
VEINTINUEVE BARCOS ingleses. solamente ingf 
(ueron huodidos en la referida semana por los sumergibleS 



i barcos, diez y s 



alerr 



;a, guardacostas al servicio del Ala 
Los alemanes no se cooformao ct 
I las tiopas de Haig y, por si s 



ide 



lo lindo a los ingle- 
Con ;res o coatro s 
la <grande 1 



s de istzs. la guerra 9 
OS Jmpehales. 



El "Boletin de la Guerra" Yale 10 centavos 



A PRO-GERMAN PAPER PUBLISHED IN MEXICO. 
>et "For truth — boycotted by the Adminiitration of YanUceU 
r«fer*nc* to France «• the "Victim of Engliih S«l(i«hne.s.'' ) 



BAJO LA ZARPA BRITANICA 




THE WORLD ENCHAINED BY THE BRITISH. 

A Pro-German Spanish Poster (Greatly Reduced). 

J 



Li^fJ 



iQUIENES SON LOS BARBAROS? 



iSUNASINVERTIDASi 

ANUALMENTEEN 

ISE6UR0SS0CIALES 




INGLATERRA 





FRANQIA 



ANALFABETOS 

(PorcadalO,OOOreclutas) 



INGLATERRA 



FRANCIA 



6AST0ANUAL 

PARA LA 

ENSENANZA 



iPRODUCCIONANUAl 
deLIBROS 



PREMIOS 
NOBEL 

OBTENIDOS 



CQNCESIONANUAL 
^ pePATENTES 



_^^?_ 



ALEMANIA 



INGLATERRA FRANCIA 



ALEMANIA 




INGLATERRA 





FRANCIA 




ALE(V\ANI 




INGLATERRA 



ALEMANIA 




INGLATERRA 



FRANCIA 





"WHICH ARE THE BARBARIANS?" 

A Pro-German Poster (Greatly Reduced) in Spanith. 

K 



CONSECUEflCIASDEHABERSE 
RECHAZADOLAPAZOEREEIDA 
PDR ALEMAHIA Y SUS ALIADOS 




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«^b ^b ^b ^b iSi iSk iXi l^B 
>r 1^ ^By np ^p '^ ^y ^p 




^1 1915 ^ '''"' 



ANO aFipTeZSi 



1917 A PIQUEOli 

conTinuflMDo flsi... 

ANO aRpTlSOI 



1918 A PIQUE 50° 



ANO aFloTl25 



^919 j\PH)U[75 



ANO 



, FLoTt ? 



HI/PANO 
ALEMANA/ 



MUERTOS 



^P10U[TO? CONCLUSION 

Mim^ m (^OMSTRUIR MAS BflRe05....((^ IMPOSIBLt ?) 

Ili^flQTflRHOS^^ LOS BflR^OS AL^MflN^S RlFUGIflCiOS ^M 




■I 



« ■» « fil l« l¥ !« « 91 «l «| 1^ ^ lit 1^ ,1^ ^ « 1^ ^ ^ ^ 1^ 1^ |9B lil lit |{| |« IS 1^ IS lil ^ 1^ |S( « |« 1^ lii li( 



PRO-ALLY SPANISH PROPAGANDA. 
A Poster (Greatly Reduced) Showing the Gradual Disappearance of Spa 
M 



sh Shipping. 




en K?3 



ON QUIJOTE %uerra 



THE KAISER AS AN ANGEL OF PEACE. 

••» You Rei«t My Loyal Hand of P.ace. Don't For.e. That in the Other Hand 1 Hold a Sharp Sword. 

(From the Pro-German Spani.h Weekly. "Don Qu.jote. ) 

N 




A Double 1'i.go Cartoon From the Pro-Ce 



"THE LAST HOPE." 
Sp«ni.h Weekly "Don Quijote." Showing America Trying to Re 
O 



itate France With Hope, Lie>, Bluff, and Pron 



A.GTITTJIDES IDEXj IT^ISrQTJI 




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